March 9, 2017 zacherlaw 0 Comments

Researchers the Whiting School of Engineering at Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine are currently working on a project to develop single-celled organisms that seek out and kill potentially deadly bacteria. The team was inspired by amoebas that have been known to surround and kill yeast bacteria and develop ‘soldier cells’ out of these amoebas. Using a $5 million dollar grant from DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the team is first focusing on making these cells target Legionella and Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria. If the project is successful, the possible applications outside of the laboratory are exciting. These amoeba soldiers could be used…