The international team led by the translational synthetic biology laboratory of the Department of Medicine and Life Sciences at the University of Pompeii Fabra in Spain has successfully modified Dermatobacter acnes to produce and secrete therapeutic molecules suitable for treating acne symptoms. Research has shown that the engineered skin bacteria can effectively treat acne and have been validated. The related research was published in the journal Nature Biotechnology on January 9th. Acne is a common skin disease caused by blockage or inflammation of hair follicles and sebaceous glands. Severe cases of acne can be treated with antibiotics or isotretinoin to kill bacteria in hair follicles. However, these can all lead to serious side effects. Researchers have developed a targeted local therapy using existing natural resources. They modified a bacterium that lives in the skin to produce the substances needed for the skin. Specifically, researchers successfully edited the genome of Dermatobacter acnes to secrete and produce a protein. This protein is a mediator of the acne drug isotretinoin. The application of this engineering bacterium has been validated in mouse skin. However, the skin of mice cannot be compared to that of humans. It has more hair, is looser, has less fat, and its sweating mechanism is also different. Therefore, there is a need for a better human skin replacement model, such as a 3D skin model, which is also the goal of future research. (Lixin News Agency) (Reporter Zhang Jiaxin)