{"id":240081,"date":"2026-07-01T07:29:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T12:29:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/bacterias-mix-and-match-code-could-create-new-cancer-fighting-drugs"},"modified":"2026-07-01T07:29:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T12:29:20","slug":"bacterias-mix-and-match-code-could-create-new-cancer-fighting-drugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/bacterias-mix-and-match-code-could-create-new-cancer-fighting-drugs","title":{"rendered":"Bacteria\u2019s \u2018mix-and-match\u2019 code could create new cancer-fighting drugs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/bacterias-mix-and-match-code-could-create-new-cancer-fighting-drugs.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A team of researchers at the University of Warwick and Monash University has solved a puzzle that has stumped drug developers for decades: how bacteria naturally create multiple versions of powerful cancer therapies. The breakthrough could accelerate the development of new treatments for hard-to-treat cancers.<\/p>\n<p>Harnessing bacterial enzymes to create drug variants, a strategy known as combinatorial biosynthesis, has long been a goal for scientists. But without understanding how these enzymes interact, progress has stalled.<\/p>\n<p>Published in <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41467-026-74383-4\" target=\"_blank\"><i>Nature Communications<\/i><\/a>, the researchers have finally revealed how bacterial enzymes communicate and work together to assemble a family of related anticancer compounds. This family includes romidepsin (Istodax), a clinically approved blood cancer treatment. By understanding this \u201cmix-and-match\u201d process and replicating the principle in the lab, the researchers have established an approach to designing new therapies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A team of researchers at the University of Warwick and Monash University has solved a puzzle that has stumped drug developers for decades: how bacteria naturally create multiple versions of powerful cancer therapies. The breakthrough could accelerate the development of new treatments for hard-to-treat cancers. Harnessing bacterial enzymes to create drug variants, a strategy known [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1522],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-240081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-innovation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240081","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=240081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240081\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}