TroGen: A commensal bacterial platform for intracellular drug delivery in TNBC
Project overview
A Top 10 undergraduate project at iGEM 2025. We engineered commensal bacteria and demonstrated their entry into TNBC cells in vitro, laying the groundwork for intracellular drug delivery.
Role: Research lead
Supervisors: Yongtao Zhu, PhD and Kevin C. Chan, PhD
iGEM 2025 · XJTLU-Science-China · Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University
Feb–Nov 2025
Research question & approach
The project explored whether commensal bacteria could serve as carriers for intracellular drug delivery in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). The initial focus was on establishing bacterial entry into tumor cells as a prerequisite for subsequent delivery studies.
My contribution
I led the research design and experimental progression of TroGen, working with the team to develop and evaluate the project’s core approach.
Selected results
Cell entry in vitro
In vitro experiments demonstrated entry of engineered commensal bacteria into TNBC cells. These findings support an early proof of concept for the cell-entry stage of the proposed platform.
Research decisions & limitations
The current findings support bacterial entry into TNBC cells. They do not yet establish successful therapeutic cargo delivery or antitumor efficacy, which require further validation.
Team & resources
TroGen was developed by the XJTLU-Science-China team for iGEM 2025.