Bacteria-based contrast agent offers 'substantial improvements' for tumor border delineation during surgery

Bacteria-based contrast agent lights up tumor margins significantly better than other agents.

Bacterial selective colonization in the hypoxic region of a 4T1 tumor, with region 1 indicating the active tumor area and region 2 indicating the hypoxic region. Caption and photo courtesy of Advanced Materials.

Essentially, the agent places a bright neon sign on the entirety of tumors and their borders, and it does so autonomously.