Bioengineered bacterial vesicles for optoacoustics-guided phototherapy

Genetically engineered bacterial outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) offer promising applications for gene therapy, immunotherapy, and vaccine delivery. Importantly, OMVs are biocompatible, biodegradable, and easy to engineer and produce on a large scale. In this chapter, we discuss the development and application of bioengineered OMVs for optoacoustics-guided phototherapy applications (theranostics). We provide detailed protocols for OMVs preparation, characterization, and in vitro and in vivo validation. The engineered OMVs carry the biopolymer melanin, which generates a strong optoacoustic (OA) signal and intense heat upon absorption of near-infrared (NIR) light, enabling optoacoustics-guided cancer diagnosis and photothermal therapy in vivo.