Implantable living materials autonomously deliver therapeutics using contained engineered bacteria

Area of Science:

• Biomaterials Engineering
• Synthetic Biology
• Microbial Therapeutics

Background:

• Microbes are promising living therapeutics, but uncontrolled dissemination poses clinical challenges.
• Current physical containment methods for bacteria are often insufficient, leading to escape.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an implantable material for effective bacterial encapsulation and containment.
• To engineer microbes within the material for controlled therapeutic payload production and release.

Main Methods:

• Developed a hydrogel scaffold with high stiffness and toughness for bacterial containment and mechanical resistance.
• Genetically engineered bacteria for environmental sensing and on-demand therapeutic release.
• Tested containment in vitro for 6 months and in a murine prosthetic joint infection model.

Main Results:

• The hydrogel material achieved complete bacterial containment for 6 months.
• The scaffold withstood physiological mechanical stress without fracture.
• Demonstrated autonomous treatment of prosthetic joint infections in mice via engineered microbes.

Conclusions:

• The developed hydrogel material provides robust physical containment for microbial therapeutics.
• This approach enables controlled delivery of therapeutic payloads and autonomous treatment of infections.