SynthesisFrontiers in microbiology2026
Engineered bacteria and engineered probiotics for intestinal disease therapy: a bibliometric and knowledge mapping analysis.
Synthesis in Frontiers in microbiology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Objective: Engineered bacteria and engineered probiotics are emerging living therapeutic platforms for intestinal diseases, supported by advances in synthetic biology, genetic engineering, and microbiome technologies. This study aimed to characterize the research landscape, knowledge structure, research hotspots, and emerging trends of engineered bacteria and engineered probiotics for intestinal disease therapy using bibliometric and knowledge mapping approaches. Methods: Publications were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection and Scopus databases. After publication type restriction, thematic relevance screening, database merging, and duplicate removal, 499 publications published between 2015 and 2026 were included. The search was completed on July 3, 2026; therefore, records from 2026 represent a partial-year dataset. R, Python, VOSviewer, and CiteSpace were used to analyze annual publication trends, country/region, institution, author and journal distributions, keyword co-occurrence and bursts, co-cited references, and research frontiers. Results: Publication output increased markedly over the study period, reaching 109 publications in 2025; 64 records were retrieved for 2026 by the cutoff date. China had the highest publication output, whereas the United States had the highest total link strength, and Asia contributed 361 publications. Keyword analysis identified inflammatory bowel disease, gut microbiota, probiotics, engineered bacteria, engineered probiotics, synthetic biology, intestinal barrier, drug delivery, colorectal cancer, and immunotherapy as major research hotspots. Co-cited reference and timeline analyses indicated a shift in research attention from conventional probiotic-mediated anti-inflammatory effects, mucosal immune regulation, and intestinal barrier protection toward bacterial chassis selection, enhanced colonization, self-regulated genetic circuits, probiotic-based biomaterials, sustained-release delivery systems, and engineered bacteria-mediated antitumor therapy. Conclusion: The bibliometric evidence indicates that recent research attention is increasingly focused on programmable living therapeutic strategies. Environmental sensing, local therapeutic delivery, sustained activity, and multifunctional design features are capabilities reported in the underlying literature and represented among the emerging themes identified in this analysis, rather than therapeutic performance directly established by the bibliometric data. Future research should further address biosafety, genetic stability, spatiotemporal controllability, intestinal colonization, delivery efficiency, and clinical translation.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.