Boing Boing Staging

Researchers develop yeast that converts sugar into morphine

opium

Scientists have developed type of yeast that can turn glucose into morphine. It will soon be possible to homebrew opiates just as one homebrews beer.

In principle, anyone with access to the yeast strain and basic skills in fermentation would be able to grow morphine-producing yeast using a home-brew kit for beer-making. If the modified yeast strain produced 10 grams of morphine, users would need to drink only 1–2 millilitres of the liquid to obtain a standard prescribed dose. (Current strains are not this efficient, but titres in this range and even tenfold higher have been achieved for other commercially relevant metabolic products.)

Image: Shutterstock

Exit mobile version