The U.S. National Institutes of Health has awarded a $13.1 million grant to the University of Massachusetts Amherst and collaborators to develop bacterial therapies targeting drug-resistant triple-negative breast cancer, marking the first such funding for bacterial cancer treatments.
The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a $13.1 million grant to the University of Massachusetts Amherst and collaborators to develop bacterial therapies targeting drug-resistant triple-negative breast cancer, marking the first such funding for bacterial cancer treatments. The five-year project, led by Neil Forbes, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at UMass Amherst, aims to engineer Salmonella bacteria to deliver three distinct treatment options, including immunotherapy, radiopharmaceutical therapy, and oncolytic viruses, to address gaps in current cancer care. Dr. Sarah Cheal of Weill Cornell Medicine will receive $2.7 million of the funding to adapt the Salmonella delivery system for radiopharmaceutical therapy (RPT), a method that uses radioactive metals to target tumors with precision, as reported by Bioengineer.org.
Three Projects Target Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
Forbes and his team will oversee research efforts designed to tackle different aspects of triple-negative breast cancer, a form of the disease that lacks the molecular targets for many existing therapies. These efforts include using Salmonella to deliver viruses that infect and destroy cancer cells, engineering Salmonella to “paint” tumors with antigens that train the immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells, and utilizing Salmonella as a delivery system for RPT, where the bacteria attract radioactive metals to target tumors with precision. A separate project will use Salmonella to decorate tumors with a COVID-derived protein, tricking the immune system into attacking cancer.
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Utilizing Salmonella as a delivery system for radiopharmaceutical therapy (RPT), where the bacteria attract radioactive metals to target tumors with precision, minimizing damage to healthy tissue.
The NIH grant also supports the creation of a genetic library of Salmonella strains to tailor the bacteria for specific therapies and the development of light-emitting molecules to monitor immune cell activity in real time. Forbes emphasized the synergy of conducting these projects in parallel, stating, Doing these projects in parallel, instead of doing three separate projects, will be synergistic. As we understand mechanisms for one of the pieces, it’ll help us understand the others.
The research will also develop nanoreporters—light-emitting molecules—to study immune cell behavior, as outlined in UMass.edu.
Collaboration with Weill Cornell Medicine and Historical Context
The initiative includes collaboration with Dr. Sarah Cheal, an assistant professor of biological chemistry in radiology at Weill Cornell Medicine, who will lead the radiopharmaceutical therapy component. Cheal’s work will focus on adapting Salmonella to act as a “homing beacon” for radioactive metals, a strategy that could improve RPT by improving tumor targeting. The team also includes UMass Amherst researchers Dr. Lauren Andrews, Dr. Lisa M. Minter, Dr. Ashish Kulkarni, and Dr. Joseph Jerry, as well as Dr. Peter Reinhart, director of the Institute for Applied Life Sciences at UMass Amherst. Forbes, who has studied bacterial cancer therapies since the early 2000s, noted the historical roots of the approach. I wrote my first paper about this topic in 2001,
he said. Recently, I found papers going back to the 1700s when people had been talking about it, before we even really knew what bacteria were. It’s old, but at the same time, it’s all new technology.
The grant represents a major step forward in translating decades of research into clinical applications, per WWLP.com.
Future Steps and Potential Impact
If successful, the research could establish bacterial therapies as a cornerstone of cancer treatment, offering a multifunctional platform to image tumors, stimulate the immune system, and deliver targeted radiation. The team plans to use the grant to refine these approaches, with a focus on safety and scalability. Forbes highlighted the clinical potential, stating, The work enabled by this award and by Ernest Pharmaceuticals—a start-up company co-founded by Forbes to develop therapeutics to develop bacterial cancer therapies—has the potential to establish highly differentiated and novel cancer treatments.
The project’s five-year timeline reflects the deliberate process of transforming nontoxic bacterial strains into reliable medical tools. While challenges remain, the NIH’s decision to fund bacterial cancer therapies at this scale signals growing institutional confidence in the field. As Forbes noted, As we understand mechanisms for one of the pieces, it’ll help us understand the others.
