Therapeutics, Brewed by Yeast : Editor's Choice Feature
- 3 days ago
- 1 min read
I'm pleased to share that our recent paper on a synthetic biotic platform for the delivery of therapeutic nanobodies to the gut has been selected as an Editor’s Choice in Disease Models & Mechanisms.
Working in collaboration with Mike Tyers and his group at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, our team engineered the probiotic yeast Saccharomyces boulardii to function as a micro-factory in the gut, producing therapeutic biologics directly at the site of disease without systemic side effects. Using this platform, we demonstrated that anti-TNF nanobodies delivered via this living biotic improved disease outcomes in a preclinical model of colitis.
This approach points to a different way of thinking about the delivery of biologic medicines, shifting from systemic delivery (which is generally untargeted, has unwanted side effects, and is expensive) to localized, programmable production at the site of disease (which is targeted, site-specific, and can be deployed at a fraction of the cost of current standards). We see this as a flexible platform with potential to deliver a range of therapeutic molecules for inflammatory and infectious diseases.
Great work by an outstanding team, and we’re grateful to the Editors for highlighting the study!
Open access paper is here:
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