Opioids from genetically engineered yeast

Started by PopeyesPappy, April 05, 2016, 11:39:12 AM

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PopeyesPappy

QuoteThe American bioengineer pioneering this research is Christina Smolke and she's transforming the field of drug development by creating new opioid drugs from the humble baker's yeast. Her research could transform the manufacture and supply of a major industry -- prescription painkillers. Opioid painkillers such as morphine, hydrocodone (the ingredient in the painkiller Vicodin) and thebaine (found in oxycodone and codeine), provide pain relief by switching off pain receptors in the brain. The potent drugs are derived from the sap of an opium poppy, but turning them into medicines takes time -- the timeframe from the farmer's field to pharmacy typically takes a more than a year. If made from genetically-modified yeast, however, the drugs can be created in a fraction of that time, in just three to five days. Smolke's complex technology involves engineering the yeast to include 23 genes taken from six organisms -- three types of poppy (Californian, Iranian and opium), the goldthread herb, soil bacteria and a rat.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/05/health/smolke-bioengineering-to-mass-produce-opioids/index.html
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Baruch

Amazing gene splicing.  But what happens when that special strain of yeast gets into the environment, including in baker's yeast?  Dude ... radical!
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

PopeyesPappy

Then you drink a beer or eat a Reuben sandwich, get fired from your job for failing a random drug test for opioids and eventually end up stepping in front of a bus. But you go out with a smile on your face and don't feel a thing. 
Save a life. Adopt a Greyhound.

aitm

Quote from: PopeyesPappy on April 05, 2016, 01:22:49 PM
Then you drink a beer or eat a Reuben sandwich, get fired from your job for failing a random drug test for opioids and eventually end up stepping in front of a bus. But you go out with a smile on your face and don't feel a thing. 

Great! Carry on then with all due haste.
A humans desire to live is exceeded only by their willingness to die for another. Even god cannot equal this magnificent sacrifice. No god has the right to judge them.-first tenant of the Panotheust

SGOS

If everyone got permanently shitfaced on opioids, only the straight dudes would present a problem, and they would be an inconsequential minority.  The rest of us could just go to work, live our lives, and conduct business shitfaced, and it wouldn't matter.  Oh, there might be some quality control issues long term, but all businesses would be about the same, so we would never realize things could be better, and we would all be happy and shitfaced together, and it would seem normal.

stromboli

Yeasts are fundamental in a lot of processes including fermentation and nutrition. Brewer's yeast has been a nutritional mainstay of body builders for decades. Certain yeasts are sources of protein and B vitamin complexes. Highly useful stuff, been around forever and we are just now figuring out all the potential benefits.

DeltaEpsilon

Quote from: Baruch on April 05, 2016, 01:09:49 PM
Amazing gene splicing.  But what happens when that special strain of yeast gets into the environment, including in baker's yeast?  Dude ... radical!

If only the tricorder were real.
The fireworks in my head don't ever seem to stop

AllPurposeAtheist

The only real breakthrough I'm interested in with opioids is the ability to make them non-addictive.. Opium even in raw state is cheap and easy to produce so this sounds more like a money saving step for the drug manufacturers. The year mentioned doesn't mention that a crop of opium doesn't go bad just sitting on the shelf and can be grown in mass quantities quickly and easily.
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DeltaEpsilon

Quote from: AllPurposeAtheist on August 27, 2016, 01:05:50 PM
The only real breakthrough I'm interested in with opioids is the ability to make them non-addictive.. Opium even in raw state is cheap and easy to produce so this sounds more like a money saving step for the drug manufacturers. The year mentioned doesn't mention that a crop of opium doesn't go bad just sitting on the shelf and can be grown in mass quantities quickly and easily.

Opioids are inertly addictive, I think you mean finding non-addictive analgesics.
The fireworks in my head don't ever seem to stop

Gawdzilla Sama

Quote from: AllPurposeAtheist on August 27, 2016, 01:05:50 PM
The only real breakthrough I'm interested in with opioids is the ability to make them non-addictive.. Opium even in raw state is cheap and easy to produce so this sounds more like a money saving step for the drug manufacturers. The year mentioned doesn't mention that a crop of opium doesn't go bad just sitting on the shelf and can be grown in mass quantities quickly and easily.
How about a droud while you wait?
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

Gawdzilla Sama

Hmmmm, a major source of hard currency in certain areas of the world is opium. If the demand for that was to dry up...
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

Solomon Zorn

If God Exists, Why Does He Pretend Not to Exist?
Poetry and Proverbs of the Uneducated Hick

http://www.solomonzorn.com

Solomon Zorn

Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on August 27, 2016, 02:00:16 PM
Hmmmm, a major source of hard currency in certain areas of the world is opium. If the demand for that was to dry up...
I think that's probably the aim.
If God Exists, Why Does He Pretend Not to Exist?
Poetry and Proverbs of the Uneducated Hick

http://www.solomonzorn.com

Solomon Zorn

Quote from: SGOS on April 05, 2016, 01:55:50 PM
If everyone got permanently shitfaced on opioids, only the straight dudes would present a problem, and they would be an inconsequential minority.  The rest of us could just go to work, live our lives, and conduct business shitfaced, and it wouldn't matter.  Oh, there might be some quality control issues long term, but all businesses would be about the same, so we would never realize things could be better, and we would all be happy and shitfaced together, and it would seem normal.

Or we would burn out our ability to have pleasure at all.
If God Exists, Why Does He Pretend Not to Exist?
Poetry and Proverbs of the Uneducated Hick

http://www.solomonzorn.com

Baruch

Quote from: Solomon Zorn on August 27, 2016, 06:49:20 PM
I think that's probably the aim.

Drug companies don't like natural sources of drugs.  Also governments like that, because the drug companies can be controlled, but not the natural sources.  There is a weed in the Mohave as good as LSD ...
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.