Bacterial ‘syringes’ could inject drugs directly into human cells
Nature Podcast
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How to Reprogram a Bacterial Syringe to Inject Into a Human Cell
Bacterial syringes can puncture the membrane of a cell and inject therapeutic protein directly into it. Scientists are trying to figure out how to reprogram this syringe for use in human cells or other types of animal cells. A computer program called AlphaFold was used to predict what the molecular shape of this latching mechanism looks like. Based on that prediction, they then engineered a way to replace the component that recognizes an insect cell with a component that can recognize humans.
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