Salmonella: Not all that bad?
by Glenn Greenwood
Imagine a filthy, slime-covered kitchen shining with chicken grease. Smelly, revolting, gut-wrenching horror? Not to two Berkeley researchers. Virologist Fenyong Liu and Bacteriologist Sangwei Lu have been developing a method for changing salmonella into something that can fight viruses. Salmonella has long been the bane of housewives everywhere struggling to keep their kitchens clean. This food borne illness is known to cause abdominal cramps, fever, and diarrhea. Using the same theory as the polio and smallpox vaccines, Liu and Lu engineered a live but weakened form of the bacteria to combat viral infection. This is the first time bacteria has been utilized this way.
When pressed for comment, Bacteriologist Sangwei Lu stated, "Viruses can't replicate on their own; they must be grown in host cells. It is more challenging to grow host cells in a lab, and there is always the risk that those cells can be contaminated with unknown viruses. To grow bacteria, you only need to add some bacteria to a simple medium, and the next day you can have 100 billion bacteria ready to go. It's safer, easier and cheaper as a vector for gene therapy."
The two Berkeley researchers found salmonella particularly appealing since it can be swallowed instead of injected. Salmonella is a crafty bacteria that has evolved over the years to survive in the hostile environment of the human digestive system.
Lu and Liu’s research – supported by the United Stations Department of Agriculture and National Institutes of Health – has a wide-ranging impact on the future of medicine. According to Sangwei Lu, "This study focused on the use of Salmonella and ribozymes to fight infections, but with more research, this method could eventually be used to treat other conditions as well, including cancer.” 
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