Biotech Bacteria Could Help Diabetics

http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/23302/

Bacterial in human body is more than often viewed as the cause for infection and disease. It is hard to think it as beneficial if it is not harmful. However, researchers from the University of Delaware and Cornell University have made a progress in engineering bacterial to treat diabetics. The bacterial is engineered to produce a protein called GLP-1 which is showed to help the diabetic mice having normal glucose blood levels. Growing bacterial is much cheaper than synthesizing the artificial insulin. In addition, if they can live healthily in human body, then the patient does not have to take the treatment once after a while. Biotechnology would greatly expand our current method of treating disease in the future.