I know you talk to your kids to teach them new things. I'm even sure you also talk to your computer. So why not teaching bacteria to do new tricks by talking with them? This is what did a team from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), according to this fascinating story published by Nature.
More precisely, they taught cells a new 'language,' turning them into tiny robots able to produce hydrogen or poisons to kill ill cells. "You could use this approach as a Trojan horse idea to combat disease," says Jeff Hasty, who works on gene modules at the University of California, San Diego. Modified cells of pathogenic bacteria could be introduced into a natural colony of the same cells, he says. Then, at a given chemical signal, the modified cells could be told to produce compounds that would kill off the bacteria.
This overview contains more details and references. It also includes images of the E.coli cells used by the scientists.
