Posted on 05/19/2015 8:16:04 PM PDT by smokingfrog
Researchers have figured out how to get yeast to produce morphine, codeine and other similar drugs and have immediately urged regulators to control these drug-brewing yeasts before people start trying to make them at home.
They genetically engineered simple brewer's yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and came up with a strain that can make very complicated plant compounds that include opioid drugs such as morphine, as well as some antibiotics and muscle relaxants.
It's an important technical step, because now these drugs have to be synthesized directly from plants—an inefficient process. The yeast process isn't that efficient yet, either, but once it's perfected and scaled up, it will lead to easy and cheap ways to make the drugs in large quantities.
"Because of the potential for illicit use of these products, including morphine and its derivatives, it is critical that appropriate policies for controlling such strains be established so that we can garner the considerable benefits while minimizing the potential for abuse," John Dueber and colleagues at the University of California Berkeley write in their report, published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology.
Specifically, what they did was to synthesize reticuline, one of the compounds found in poppies, using an amino acid found in sugar called tyrosine.
It's caught the attention of experts already.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
Thanks, I learned something.
I’m a fountain of nearly useless obscure trivia...
yeah
from Lite beer to Height beer
> Notice this thinking led to now Obama getting the FCC to start regulating the Internet on June 12.
I guess we can expect lots of new members that don’t share our point of view, service disruptions, and audits, right? Or just a 404 error sign...
LOL
The left is about to become pro-GMO.
Key to require the yeast keep making alcohol along with the narcotics. Then it would be haram for the Muslim narcs to use and we could undercut their empire.
yes all that and slower internet speeds
The FCC will now run the Internet with the efficiency that they ran the old bell South monopoly where you had to pay $400 for a long distance call. The internet flourished precisely because it was free of government regulation. Any industry where the gov is involved innovation slows as in the government schools, HUD, DMV, etc.
I can hardly wait for all the fines I will get for viewing radical websites like FR or anything having to do with the Constitution or making comments about His Highness. Or how about those door knocks we’ll be getting for defending 2nd amendment rights or talking about militias? Yeah I can hardly wait...
You can do that now. All you need is seeds.............
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