Back in May, UC Berkeley scientists reported using genetically modified yeast to "brew" morphine. Now Stanford University scientists have created strains of yeast that can make other opiate painkillers:
A strain of yeast engineered in a lab was able to transform sugar into a pain-killing drug — called hydrocodone — for the first time. And a second strain was able to produce thebaine, an opiate precursor that drug companies use to make oxycodone. The findings, published in Science, could completely change the way drug companies make pain-relieving medicine. Unfortunately, it may also open the door to less positive outcomes, like "home-brewed" heroin.
[...] In the short term, yeast-made opiates might lead to cheaper drugs. But the true excitement is farther down the road: scientists may be able to use this technology to make more effective pain-killers. "We're not just limited to what happens in nature or what the poppies make," Smolke says. "We can begin to modify these compounds in ways that will, for example, reduce the negative side effects that are associated with these medicines, but still keep the pain relieving properties." The two yeast strains aren't anywhere near ready for commercial use. Right now, they make such small quantities of drugs that it would take about 4,400 gallons of engineered yeast to make a single dose of standard pain-relieving medicine. So the next step for researchers is boosting the drug yields — which could take years. And for once, that might actually be a good thing; health officials and scientists will need that time to figure out how to keep these strains from being used to fuel the illegal drug market.
[More after the break.]
Creating a plan that encourages this line of research while also preventing the illicit use of these yeast strains "is critical," says John Dueber, a bioengineer at the University of California-Berkeley who didn't work on this study, but who has been working on yeast-made opiates. Thomas Binz, head of Biological Safety and Human Genetics in Switzerland's Federal Office of Public Health, agrees. "All facilities or laboratories that want to produce such strains will have to be known to the government," he says, specifying that these are his personal opinions. Binz also thinks that an oversight system for genetically modified organisms or particular DNA sequences will have to be created "to prevent theft." Finally, scientists will have to come up with ways to make it harder for illegal users to produce the strains sustainably.
[...] The Stanford researchers acknowledge that their strains could be used to make illegal drugs in the paper; they want to work with outside experts to limit the risk. That said, Smolke doesn't think that risk is very big — at least not right now. In a separate study, her team showed that the strains can't make opioid compounds under home-brew conditions. In addition, because the laboratory conditions that are needed to make the technique work are so highly specialized, Smolke thinks that even strains that can make more drugs won't be much use to home-brewers. [...] A meeting of the International Expert Group of Biosafety and Biosecurity Regulations is set to take place later this month in Berlin, Binz says. "Progress on opiate synthesis in yeast, including built-in security features, will be scheduled on the next meeting."
Abstract, Stanford Report, and Smithsonian Magazine.
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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]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 15 2015, @03:10PM
The DEA announces the ban on the sale of sugar.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 15 2015, @03:13PM
sweeeeeet mooooon suuugarr
(Score: 1) by bjwest on Saturday August 15 2015, @04:18PM
That's actually not a bad thing. Maybe not an outright ban, but sugar should be regulated.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 15 2015, @04:26PM
Why should it be regulated?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 15 2015, @10:28PM
Because it can make you feel good. Anything that can cause a person to feel anything but miserable must be banned! Feeling good is forbidden in Jesusland.
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Saturday August 15 2015, @11:42PM
Because anything that can have even so much as an indirect effect on others (such as health problems from eating too much junk food, or drug addiction) must be heavily regulated or outright banned. You think you have a fundamental right to control your own body? Think again. Enjoy your 'freedom'.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday August 15 2015, @04:20PM
Yeast strains fall into the hands of the public and the DEA determines that sugar is a precursor for all evil drugs.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Informative) by Bot on Saturday August 15 2015, @03:13PM
- pharma studies natural ingredients, and try to synthesize its components because they are patentable.
- genetic engineering alters other plants to produce that synthetic stuff naturally
- in the meantime the world deposits of natural diversity, where who knows many effective cures exist, are destroyed.
not to detract from the researchers, who sacrifice most of their time to bring us results such as this.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 15 2015, @04:13PM
Pharma synthesizes natural products because of yield, transport, time, and stability. Patents are important in pharma becuase development is much more expensive than production. A company will not spend a billion dollars on clinical trials if they can't make the money back with profit on top. Remember, pharmaceutical companies are not charities.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 15 2015, @09:50PM
Patents are not the only way. Research can be payed for by the tax payer. People don't like paying up front for things, even if it saves them money in the long run. So patents are the preferred method for paying for pharmaceutical research but don't pretend it is the only way.
Instead we have a system where the tax payer pays to subsidize the research and then also pays the premium prices for the drugs, either directly or through higher health care costs. It is especially amusing when companies create slight variations just so the can get another patent on a very similar product, but that's more a case of marketing convincing people that the generics aren't good enough.
We always pay.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 15 2015, @10:46PM
Read what I wrote again. There is no mention of patents being the only solution.
As you mention, taxpayers are unwilling to pay for anything besides basic research so the vast majority of drug development costs are covered by the private sector. This is the system the US wants and this is what they get. It is amusing when people expect companies to prioritize the health of the public over their own profit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 15 2015, @10:32PM
Except that ithe topic is about cultivating drugs, instead of synthesizing them. If synthesis were so superior we wouldn't be doing this.
You have a point about less variation, but what happens IRL? people have variations, illnesses have variations, conditions under which illnesses develop and medicines are stored have variations, the interactions with other substances are not even measurable. So, even with all the correctly applied statistics, the doctor has to say "let's hope it works".
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday August 16 2015, @01:21AM
UC Berkeley - publicly funded institute of learning. That is, not profit driven, exactly. We've gone terribly wrong somewhere.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 4, Informative) by kanweg on Saturday August 15 2015, @03:20PM
The yeast not in the hands of addicts is a mixed blessing. If a yeast strain producing an illicit drug makes it uneconomic for Afghan farmers to grow poppies because demand plummets, it would cut off an important way of funding of the Taliban.
If you want to do something about the illicit drugs market (and reduce crime, and reduce terrorism), let the government provide drugs to the addicts. That is way cheaper too. By way of example,e in the Netherlands, heroin addicts are old people because they are supplied with their fix in a controlled manner, so they don't recruit new consumers to pay for their own bad habit. And they don't steal as much.
Bert
(Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Saturday August 15 2015, @08:10PM
The Taliban do not use the opium/heroine trade to get money. In fact during the time the Taliban was in near full control of Afghanistan the amount of poppies being grown dropped to near zero.It wasn't until after the USA/Allies invaded and restored the local warlords/tribal/corrupt leaders to power that the opium trade rocketed back to what it was before the Taliban took power and Afghanistan returned to its former position as one of the leading sources of heroin in the world.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 3, Informative) by tathra on Saturday August 15 2015, @10:34PM
they do now that they're not in power. [bbc.com] they're only anti-drug when they're in positions of power and able to exert control over other people's lives, they're very pro-drug when it comes to lining their own pockets (just like the CIA).
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 15 2015, @03:33PM
But won't.
Will make higher profits for drug companys instead.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 15 2015, @04:10PM
At least it means intellectual property that can be stolen.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 15 2015, @04:19PM
Must protect profits above all else.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 15 2015, @09:25PM
imagine the level of street crime and violence it would cut if you give every junkie a jar, some sugar and a packet of yeast...
(Score: 4, Insightful) by tathra on Saturday August 15 2015, @10:44PM
significantly lessened, or even none at all? that would be a massive improvement over the current policies of murdering dogs [thefreethoughtproject.com], babies [go.com], and otherwise innocent and/or non-violent people [huffingtonpost.com], not to mention the constant loss of rights and civil liberties, increasingly militarized police, and creeping totalitarianism directly resulting from the failure that is prohibition.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 15 2015, @11:46PM
imagine the level of street crime and violence it would cut if you give every junkie a jar, some sugar and a packet of yeast...
Sounds like they're saying street crime and violence would decrease.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 16 2015, @03:24AM
If you did all those things, what excuse would there be to militarize the cops and keep around the Nazi-sounding Department of Homeland Security? Too many people would start asking too many questions at that point. A few people dead or scared and some property damage or (better yet, since it can be sold at 100% profit) seized is a small expense for keeping people in the dark about what's really going on and who butters who's bread.
(Score: 3, Informative) by hemocyanin on Sunday August 16 2015, @12:48AM
Exactly. The knee jerk line at the end of TFA is just bullshit. If junkies could produce their own stuff virtually free, it would push violent criminals out of the market place, junkies would be able to get by on panhandling alone rather than pay black market prices, and if the experience of Portugal is any lessen, when you decriminalize all drugs, you get a drop in drug usage. This anti-drug horseshit is literally destroying American values -- just look at the Bill of Rights. All the crap shredding it has its roots in the drug war. And look at how overboard we've gone as a prison state -- we have more poeple in prison than any other nation on earth, not just per capita, but in absolute numbers. Even "repressive" countries like China don't have as many people locked up. The drug war is futile, racist, expensive, and destroys the American way of life. Thus it's all the rage in Mordor (aka that dark city in the east also known as Washington DC).
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Sunday August 16 2015, @12:51AM
lessen = lesson
I just partook of some of America's favorit drug (alcohol). Maybe I should brew up some of its second favorite (coffee).
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Sunday August 16 2015, @12:51AM
favorit = favorite
Yeah, I'm a lightweight.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Sunday August 16 2015, @01:06AM
Oh wait...
Bad decisions, great stories