A profoundly devastating disease, cancer is one of the most extensively studied medical conditions across the globe. More efficient treatment options could save many lives.
This is what inspired Kyle Champagne, a PhD candidate in biomedical engineering, to research a method that could change the way treatment is delivered to cancerous cells.
His research involves taking engineered bacteria and using chemical signals to help the bacteria navigate towards cancer cells. This strain of bacteria could improve the efficiency of cancer treatments by allowing medication to be delivered directly to the tumour site.
Combatting cancerous tumours
Champagne’s research aims to develop bacterial strains that can detect and move toward the chemical signals that tumours produce. He picked lactate as the chemical that his engineered bacteria could latch onto because cancerous tumours produce lactate to help them grow faster, making it an ideal chemical signal for targeted treatment.
He first placed the bio-engineered bacteria in an environment that simulates the bloodstream, then placed the lactate solution nearby along with a control agent, with time-lapse photography set up to document the bacteria’s movement.
Champagne’s research results are promising. “We proved that our genetically modified bacterial strain exhibits a clear response toward lactate,” he explains. “This establishes an important foundation for future work aimed at optimizing movement toward tumour environments.”
A global collaboration in cancer research
Champagne’s research is part of a global effort. In tandem with researchers in Canada, laboratories in Chile, France and Latvia each contributed their specialized expertise. “Our partners in Chile and Latvia specialize in biophysics and bacterial motion analysis, and France focuses on genetic modification,” says Champagne. “Our work in Canada centres on microfluidics and blood flow modeling.”
This research project was conducted under the supervision of Professor Marianne Fenech from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Ottawa. Another key collaborator and co-supervisor of this project is Professor Viviana Claverìa, a lead researcher from the University of Latvia.
Small organisms, big difference
Champagne’s work has had a considerable impact on the advancement of medicine. “This research contributes to the development of more precise and targeted approaches to cancer treatment,” explains Champagne. “It has the potential to reduce damage to healthy tissue and improve treatment efficiency.”
His research will also have an impact on biomedical engineering in general. Biomedical engineers can use his method to study the behaviour of other bacteria in a controlled environment, which could help optimize future bacteria-based therapeutic systems.
The next step in this research project is to determine the optimal lactate concentration to maximize the bacterial response. Champagne plans to continue developing his strategies and testing engineered bacteria in even more complex environments.
Champagne intends to pursue an academic career; he hopes to become a professor and lead his own research lab and team. He also wants to continue collaborating with researchers from different fields, saying “I strongly believe that complex biomedical challenges require multidisciplinary and cross-border expertise.”
Advancing health care, a uOttawa Engineering priority
Kyle Champagne was awarded first place in the “Enabling technologies for health care and augmented life” category of the 2026 Engineering and Computer Science Poster Competition held on Engineering Research Celebration Day. His poster, titled Exploiting Tumour-Associated Lactate to Guide Therapeutic Bacteria, demonstrated his exemplary efforts to advance biomedical research.
Enabling technologies for health care and augmented life is one of five primary research areas at uOttawa’s Faculty of Engineering. University of Ottawa engineering researchers are driven by opportunities to improve people’s lives, along with researchers from the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Health Sciences, who are key partners in this research area.
Discover more about research by other Engineering and Computer Science Poster Competition winners.
