A recent article in Molecular Systems Biology described a technique involving gene deletion of selected bacteria to eliminate pathogenicity with substitution of genes that express peptidoglycans that destroy pathogenic bacteria and those that can form biofilms.

The system is under development by Pulmobiotics, located in Barcelona, Spain and a spin-off from the Center for Genomic Regulation The primary purpose is to deploy a microbiological system that will destroy biofilms on prostheses and on medical implants including pacemakers and catheters.  The vector for pulmonary infections is Mycoplasma pneumoniae normally a pathogen but after modification the GM organism can destroy biofilms and inactivate pathogenic bacteria by secreting bactericidal enzymes.

Pulmobiotics is evaluating large-scale production and will initiate clinical trials in 2023.  If this technology is proven to be cost-effective, commercial-level propagation of suitably modified bacteria could be used to treat avian diseases and if sufficiently inexpensive, to remove biofilms from equipment and even water lines and components of drinking systems.