Electric bacteria to help gut and mouth health
Therapeutic and Catalytic Applications of Electroactive Bacteria
The team will look at whether bacteria that carry electrical signals can help prevent or treat gut and mouth health problems.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of Texas at Austin NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Austin, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11324894 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
Researchers will engineer bacterial proteins that move electrons outside the cell to create new chemical activities and speed up useful reactions. They will study how these "electroactive" bacteria behave in healthy and disrupted gut environments using animal models and specialized droplet tests that can find electroactive microbes in complex samples. The project will also try moving these electron-transfer components into probiotic-type bacteria to see if they can be made therapeutic. This work is early-stage lab and animal research that aims to set the stage for future tests in people.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Ideal participants would be people with gut dysbiosis or oral microbiome-related issues who could provide samples now or join future probiotic trials.
Not a fit: People without microbiome-related conditions or those needing immediate clinical treatment are unlikely to gain direct benefit from this early laboratory-focused work.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this could enable new probiotic therapies or diagnostics that modulate microbe-driven chemistry to improve gut and oral health.
How similar studies have performed: Laboratory studies have shown electroactive bacteria like Shewanella can transfer electrons, but applying this concept to human gut or oral diseases is largely novel and unproven.
Where this research is happening
Austin, United States
- University of Texas at Austin — Austin, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Keitz, Benjamin Keith — University of Texas at Austin
- Study coordinator: Keitz, Benjamin Keith
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.