this is very cool but has the potential to become a big headache. with advances in synthetic biology scientists can engineer biosynthetic pathways from plants into yeast. and voila- yeast that makes heroin.
Quote:
A new paper in Nature Chemical Biology suggests that yeast can be modified to produce opiates from sugar -- albeit not without a whole lot of biology expertise -- meaning that dangerous drugs could be made at home the same way hobbyists create beer. But researchers warn that regulators should act quickly to keep DIY home-brewers from figuring out the process for themselves.
Creating the same opiates poppies do (which go into familiar drugs like morphine and oxycodone) is an intriguing prospect from a pharmaceutical standpoint. Cultivating yeast is much simpler than growing fields of poppies, and yeast-born opiates have more potential to be tweaked for specific medical purposes.
“It’s hard to add or subtract genes into the plant, and plants grow very slowly,” lead author John Dueber of UC Berkeley told WIRED. “Whereas, we can easily put in different DNA and change combinations of genes in yeast—and yeast can double every two hours.”
Home-brewed heroin could be a thing, thanks to genetically engineered yeast - The Washington Post
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you could spot some of this yeast on a piece of paper and mail it anywhere in the world as a home-brew opiate kit
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