In recent years biotechnology has come a long way especially engineering bacteria. Now it is not just science fiction, or a rogue mad science examining the possibility of modifying bacteria (genetically) that is already inside us, to deliver drugs, destroy tumours, actively fight infections and even vaccinate against their disease-causing kin. In a way it is not a huge jump, consider the food that we eat today (not including wild caught fish) almost everything is engineered in a way, genetically engineered plants, animals diet etc.
We will investigate this further, by looking at what Jeffrey Hillman an oral biologist of the University of Florida, in 1996 he and his lab-mates hypothesized if they genetically modifying Streptococcus mutans (S.mutans, which are found in almost all human mouths, is a bacteria that thrives on leftover sugars, the by-product of the digestion is the acid that eats away the enamel) this might lead to a cavity-preventing bacteria. The first attempt was to permanently eradicate the “native” S.mutans this didn’t work due to the fact it was near impossible to totally eradicate the bacteria, what they tried next was to delete the microbe’s gene for acid production but this didn’t survive their genetic tinkering. Hillman solved this problem by making the bug produce alcohol instead of acid, which he acquired the alcohol production from Zymomonas Mobilis they experimented this on rats. The results; the rats where mostly cavity-free even though they were on a high sugar diet.
Hillman got approval from the Food and Drug Administration to do a trial with very careful restrictions due to a fear of unchecked spread. These requirements were; make the microbe unable to survive without a daily dose of amino acids, patients and their spouses must have and wear full dentures, the patient must not have children in the house during the trail, the patient must present themselves as robust, healthy under 55 year olds, The trail (2007) proved that it was successful.
Hillman, JD 2002, ‘Genetically modified Streptococcus mutans for the prevention of dental caries’ Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, vol. 82, pp. 361-366
Sach, JS 2008, Good Germs, Bad Germs Health and Survival in a Bacterial World, Hill and Wang, New York.
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