Professor Luke O'Neill

And very nicely, what they've shown is if you're on chemo for multiple types of cancer, it turns out,

If there's a bacteria called Barnacella intestinohomonas, I'll say that again, even I have trouble with these names, Barnacella intestinohomonas, if that species of bacteria, you will have an increased response to chemotherapy.

Now, this could be extremely important because you can imagine where they're going with that.

you will give someone chemo in combination with that bacteria.

And that's what's happening.

They're testing these things as we speak.

Now, why would that be?

Why would a certain bacteria increase their response to chemotherapy?

Well, it turns out the chemotherapy is also affecting the bacteria, activating them, and they get the immune system going.

Isn't that great?

So in a way, you're mobilizing the immune system through the bacteria to

to attack the cancer.

That's one idea that they're exploring.

And they've got evidence for this.

It's great.

And for some reason, this barnacella one is especially sensitive to chemo and can release things that provoke the immune system into action to help fight the tumor.

It's a funny discovery that actually the chemo isn't just a poison then.

We know now chemo is also very good at driving the immune response.

either through this route, through bacteria, or through damaging our own cells, which then release things that trigger the immune response as well.

So the combination with chemo is a really interesting area that's developing all the time.