{"id":238888,"date":"2026-06-13T06:28:37","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T11:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/uic-scientists-source-anti-cancer-treatment-in-bacteria"},"modified":"2026-06-13T06:28:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T11:28:37","slug":"uic-scientists-source-anti-cancer-treatment-in-bacteria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/uic-scientists-source-anti-cancer-treatment-in-bacteria","title":{"rendered":"UIC scientists source anti-cancer treatment in bacteria"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oNRQcvGJahk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago have developed an anti-cancer therapy inspired by bacteria found in cancer tumors.<\/p>\n<p>When tested in combination with radiation in animal models of prostate cancer, it was highly effective \u2014 the approach effectively shut down tumor growth. The therapy is made from a fragment of a bacterial protein, a peptide called aurB. In cancer tumors in the animal models, aurB prevented energy production in the tumor cells\u2019 mitochondria, essentially cutting off the tumor\u2019s fuel, the researchers <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41392-026-02703-7\">report<\/a> in the journal Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe mitochondria are very important for a cell to survive; they are the energy factories,\u201d said <a href=\"https:\/\/cancer.uillinois.edu\/member\/tohru-yamada\">Tohru Yamada<\/a>, senior author on the study, associate professor in the departments of surgery and biomedical engineering at UIC and a member of the University of Illinois Cancer Center. \u201cMany cancer cells exhibit altered mitochondrial number and activity, because a cancer cell has to grow aggressively and rapidly. Therefore, the mitochondria would be an ideal target for cancer therapy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago have developed an anti-cancer therapy inspired by bacteria found in cancer tumors. When tested in combination with radiation in animal models of prostate cancer, it was highly effective \u2014 the approach effectively shut down tumor growth. The therapy is made from a fragment of a bacterial protein, a [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-238888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-engineering"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238888\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}