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SCIENCETuesday 19 May 2015
Discovery opens door for homemade morphine, painkillers
ALICIA CHANG In this April 11, 2015 file photo, Afghan farmers harvest raw opium at a poppy field in Kandahar’s group of researchers from
AP Science Writer Zhari district, Afghanistan. the Massachusetts Institute
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sci- of Technology and Univer-
entists have figured out Associated Press sity of Alberta in Canada
all the steps to make mor- called for restricting ge-
phine and similar painkillers yeast to mimic poppies, in day in the journal Nature to make homemade mor- netically modified yeast
without using opium pop- hopes of creating cheap- Chemical Biology. phine because the process strains to licensed facilities
pies, opening the door for er and less addictive pain The genetically engineered is inefficient. Even scien- so that they won’t fall into
home-brewed drugs and relievers. So far, the yeast yeast was able to convert tists are years away from the wrong hands. They also
even wider abuse. strains created can only sugar to a chemical that’s lab-made morphine that’s want current laws to be ex-
While no one has yet report- perform the last steps of a a precursor to morphine. strong enough to treat tended to make such yeast
ed making morphine in the long process that can lead While the researchers pain. With technology ad- strains illegal to distribute.
laboratory from scratch, to morphine and other nar- stopped short of produc- vancing, some point out Now is the time to act be-
some experts are calling cotic drugs. ing the drug in the lab, their that there could come a cause “you don’t want to
for regulations to prevent A team led by researchers work lays the foundation for time when brewing mor- be doing it afterward. You
garage tinkerers from mak- at UC Berkeley discovered DIY narcotics without the phine may be as simple as can’t do it afterward,” Ken-
ing do-it-yourself morphine, the missing piece — the first need to grow poppies. brewing beer. neth Oye, lead author of
which can be converted step in the process — and Experts said it’s still ex- In a commentary published the commentary and di-
into heroin. published the findings Mon- tremely difficult for people in the journal Nature, a rector of the MIT Program
Society needs to “think this on Emerging Technologies,
through now before it be- said in a telephone inter-
comes a reality,” said bio- view. Others said more dis-
engineer John Dueber of cussion is needed to deter-
the University of California, mine what regulatory con-
Berkeley, who led a team trols should be in place.
that discovered the final “While there are risks of
missing link of the process. not acting quickly enough
Poppy plants have been on modifying regulations
farmed for centuries for opi- during early technical de-
um, from which morphine velopment, there are also
is derived. The controlled risks of too hastily solving
substance is often used be- the wrong problems,” Me-
fore and after surgeries to gan Palmer of the Center
relieve severe pain. for International Security
For the past decade, vari- and Cooperation at Stan-
ous groups of researchers ford University said in a
have hacked the DNA of statement.q
