18 new bacteria, hidden in data everyone throws away, open a fresh path in prostate cancer research

When scientists read a tumour's DNA, a few leftover fragments do not match human DNA at all — and are usually filtered out and discarded. A team at the University of East Anglia did the opposite: they kept those scraps and rebuilt whole bacterial genomes from them. Working with existing data from 194 prostate cancer patients, they recovered 249 bacterial genomes, including species never recorded before, and built a precise DNA test for one of them. The team is careful — nobody is claiming these bacteria cause prostate cancer. But mouth bacteria keep turning up in this research, and now, species by species, scientists can finally ask whether one of them helps drive aggressive disease, and whether anything can be done about it.

SDG 9 · Industry, innovation and infrastructure — Mechanism: tech innovation