Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have a long historical record of usage in many types of food-related bioprocesses, and as LAB have been found to have intrinsic beneficial effects on human health, interest in using LAB as a medical treatment has increased. Moreover, recent advances in synthetic biology have enabled the engineering of so-called “smart” bacteria with the native characteristics of LAB. With various synthetic parts for gene expression, genome editing, and genetic circuits, gene expression can be precisely regulated in LAB. Moreover, LAB have been successfully developed as potential hosts for therapeutics to detect and control specific diseases or to deliver drug molecules. In this review, we outline the recent development of synthetic parts and approaches for the engineering of LAB. We also discuss the potential application of synthetic biology for the utilization of LAB as living therapeutics.

乳酸菌（LAB）在许多类型的与食物相关的生物过程中的使用已有很长的历史记录，并且由于已发现LAB对人类健康具有内在的有益影响，因此人们越来越多地将LAB用作医学治疗方法。此外，合成生物学的最新进展已使具有LAB天然特征的所谓“智能”细菌得以工程改造。通过用于基因表达，基因组编辑和遗传电路的各种合成部分，可以在LAB中精确调节基因表达。此外，LAB已成功开发为治疗剂的潜在宿主，可用于检测和控制特定疾病或传递药物分子。在这篇综述中，我们概述了合成零件和LAB工程学方法的最新发展。