Microbial therapeutics: New opportunities for drug delivery

Miguel Jimenez; Robert Langer; Giovanni Traverso

doi:10.1084/jem.20190609

Microbial therapeutics: New opportunities for drug delivery

J Exp Med. 2019 May 6;216(5):1005-1009. doi: 10.1084/jem.20190609. Epub 2019 Apr 26.

Authors

Miguel Jimenez¹, Robert Langer^{2

3

4}, Giovanni Traverso^{5

6}

Affiliations

¹ David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
² David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA rlanger@mit.edu.
³ Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
⁴ Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
⁵ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA ctraverso@bwh.harvard.edu.
⁶ Division of Gastroenterology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.

Abstract

With >40 clinical trials underway, we are nearing the first FDA-approved live microbial therapeutic. Here, Giovanni Traverso, MIT and Harvard Medical School Assistant Professor, and colleagues Miguel Jimenez and Institute Professor Robert Langer from MIT discuss the significant challenges of administering live microorganisms to patients and the opportunities for drug delivery of these new complex therapeutics.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Bifidobacterium
Clostridium
Clostridium Infections / microbiology
Clostridium Infections / therapy*
Drug Compounding
Drug Delivery Systems*
Drug Dosage Calculations
Escherichia coli
Fecal Microbiota Transplantation / methods*
Gastrointestinal Microbiome
Humans
Vaccines, Live, Unattenuated*

Substances

Vaccines, Live, Unattenuated