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posted by CoolHand on Tuesday May 26 2015, @10:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the time-to-convert-the-meth-lab dept.

The BBC is reporting that...

Scientists have figured out how to brew morphine using the same kit used to make beer at home.

They have genetically modified yeast to perform the complicated chemistry needed to convert sugar to morphine.

Further...

If you brew beer at home, then you are relying on microscopic yeast that turns sugars into alcohol. But by borrowing DNA from plants, scientists have been genetically engineering yeasts that can perform each of the steps needed to convert sugar into morphine. One stage of the process - the production of an intermediary chemical called reticuline - had been a stumbling block.

That has been solved by a team at the University of California, Berkeley, and the scientists say it should now be possible to put all the steps together and "brew" morphine.

Dr John Dueber, a bioengineer at the university, said: "What you really want to do from a fermentation perspective is to be able to feed the yeast glucose, which is a cheap sugar source, and have the yeast do all the chemical steps required downstream to make your target therapeutic drug.

"With our study, all the steps have been described, and it's now a matter of linking them together and scaling up the process. It's not a trivial challenge, but it's doable."

Abstract from Nature.


[Editor's Comment: Original Submission]

 
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  • (Score: 2) by mtrycz on Wednesday May 27 2015, @08:08AM

    by mtrycz (60) on Wednesday May 27 2015, @08:08AM (#188512)

    Ain't this the first major result?

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  • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday May 27 2015, @05:12PM

    by Immerman (3985) on Wednesday May 27 2015, @05:12PM (#188696)

    I believe insulin holds that crown.

    • (Score: 2) by mtrycz on Wednesday May 27 2015, @07:25PM

      by mtrycz (60) on Wednesday May 27 2015, @07:25PM (#188739)

      References? From what I remember, they were extracting insuline from pigs. At least when I last checked.

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      • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday May 27 2015, @08:53PM

        by Immerman (3985) on Wednesday May 27 2015, @08:53PM (#188776)

        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulin#Synthesis_2 [wikipedia.org]

        The first genetically engineered, synthetic "human" insulin was produced using E. coli in 1978 by Arthur Riggs and Keiichi Itakura at the Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope in collaboration with Herbert Boyer at Genentech.