Undergraduate Research & Scholarships

Kylie Huang L&S Biological Sciences

Engineering Programmable Bacterial Factories for In Situ eCIS Delivery

Extracellular contractile injection systems (eCIS) are phage tail-like nanomachines that act as microscopic syringes, delivering protein effectors into eukaryotic cells. Recent work has shown that eCIS are modular and can be reprogrammed to carry specific cargo to chosen targets, but current research is largely limited to purified particles or static expression systems. My project investigates how bacterial systems can be engineered to expand the therapeutic potential of eCIS beyond these current approaches, with the long-term goal of enabling localized macromolecule delivery.

Message To Sponsor

Thank you so much for your generous support this summer. I am extremely excited to investigate how bacterial systems can be engineered to expand the therapeutic potential of eCIS, moving these "nanomachines" beyond lab settings and closer to a reality for localized macromolecule delivery. I am truly grateful for the opportunity to pursue this work and explore how these programmable platforms can address complex clinical questions with your support.