Yeast used to produce potent opioids
Yeast has had a great impact on the life of humans, it is has found a variety of uses including fermentation of wine and brewing of beer. But, recently a team of scientists at Stanford University have made use of bioengineered yeast to make opioids, a class of painkilling drugs which are made from opium, poppy.
Making of these painkilling drugs takes years, starting from farms where they are licensed to grow poppy till the synthesis of the required compound in labs. But, this may just be a revolutionary breakthrough in the field of medicine if this technique can be made commercially viable.
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