Scientists have examined the toxins that pathogens use to destroy their host organism and the special injection mechanism that bacteria use to deliver their poisonous contents into the host cell, and have now managed in replacing the toxin in this nano-syringe with a different material. A team led by Stefan Raunser, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology in Dortmund, has found this fatal mechanism by applying cryo-electron microscopy. This mechanism reveals the three-dimensional structure of proteins in near-atomic resolution. The new findings could lead to medical compounds one day being introduced into cells with the help of bacterial toxin and could open up new opportunities in cancer treatment.