Israeli researchers have developed an innovative method that enables medicine to be manufactured within the body itself.

The pioneering approach, not yet tested on humans, uses live, harmless bacteria that act like tiny factories, producing therapeutic proteins inside the body, exactly where they are needed.

“We are accustomed to thinking that to introduce a drug into the body, it must be manufactured in a factory and then delivered via a capsule or an injection,” said Prof. Boaz Mizrahi of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology’s lab for biomaterials in the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering.

“This could be a turning point in the world of pharmaceuticals, and a new paradigm for both drug production and consumption,” he added.

Mizrahi recently spoke with The Times of Israel in a joint interview with Dr. Adi Gross, the study’s lead researcher.

Proteins are used in a variety of medicines, Mizrahi said. One example of a medical protein is insulin, used to help control blood sugar. Another hormone helps people with kidney disease make red blood cells. There are also antibodies and growth hormones made with proteins.

However, “proteins are very fragile, and their configuration is critical,” Mizrahi explained. If they are swallowed, for example, the stomach and intestines treat them like food and break them down, so they are ineffective.

The researchers’ novel method enables bacteria to produce and release perfectly configured, ready-for-use proteins within the body.

After testing on mice, the approach was written up in a peer-reviewed study which appeared in the journal Advanced........

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