Modern medicine has a pretty good handle on bad bacteria – the kinds that can make us sick, but in many parts of the human body bacteria play a role in keeping us healthy.
“The skin, the respiratory tract, the uro-genital tract and I would say the highest abundance is within our gut.”
And Melanie Rutkowski, a professor of microbiology, immunology and cancer biology at UVA, says there’s one other area where bacteria might be doing good things.
“Particular cancers have bacteria present within the tumor.”
Some studies suggest a diverse group of bacteria in pancreatic tumors make treatment more effective which leaves Rutkowski wondering if that might be the case for other tumors, what those bacteria do and where they came from.
“We’re curious about how these bacteria even arrive into the tumors,” she says.
But there was no way to study them in living animals until a team led by UVA chemist Marcos Pires stepped in. They’ve discovered a light-emitting dye that allows scientists to see bacteria in living laboratory mice.
“We are now able to make reagents that, when given to mice, will allow us to visualize this rich community of bacteria in the gut," he explains.
That discovery could help scientists to figure out what impact certain medications and probiotics might have on bacteria in animals and how that correlates with recovery from disease.
