Killer's Fingerprint

Genetic fingerprinting is best known as a way of detecting crime – but may also be used to track down potential killers inside our bodies. We all have friendly bacteria in our digestive system but sometimes villainous bugs sneak in with the crowd – such as Helicobacter pylori (pictured, false-coloured orange), which can cause chronic gastritis and is believed to increase the risk of the stomach cancer, adenocarcinoma. In a laboratory experiment, human stomach cells were infected with these sausage-shaped bacteria, causing damage to the cells’ DNA. When this changed DNA was compared with that of a range of human cancer cells, there was a marked similarity with adenocarcinoma cells. This type of genetic fingerprinting could help to identify which bacteria in our bodies are potential killers, so that infections can be treated with more urgency.

Written by Mick Warwicker

Mick Warwicker

Writer

A freelance communications consultant and writer, Mick specialises in science and education. A science graduate and award-winning print and broadcast journalist, he was Head of Communications at Newcastle University from 2000–2011.

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• Image courtesy of the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin
• Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin, Germany
• Copyright held by Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology
• Research published in Cell Reports, June 2015