The only reason this caught my eye is because I’m a synthetic organic chemist, and it amazes me how little we really know about making molecules compared to what nature can accomplish with a few enzymes and millions of years of evolution. A group of researchers at Berkeley have managed to engineer E. coli bacteria to produce artemisinin, a potent antimalarial drug.
Not only can they produce the precursor to artemisinin, but they can produce a wide variety of similar and related natural products with relative ease.
Sometimes I wonder why I’m using a sledgehammer to do the work of an X-Acto knife.
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