Yeast – It is Not Just For Bread And Alcohol Any More

A biotech company has devised a method for producuing cannabinoids with yeast.

Hyasynth’s researchers aren’t the only ones working to brew cannabinoids using yeast. In a paper published in Biotechnology Letters in December, German biochemists announced they had genetically engineered yeast to produce THC.

And another Canadian firm, Anandia Labs, is well on its way toward brewing its own yeast-produced cannabinoids.

Chen says genes from marijuana are inserted into the yeast genome, where they produce the enzymes that create the cannabinoid. Before insertion, the yeast’s metabolic systems are engineered “to get it to produce your molecules instead of its own molecules.”

Yeast-produced cannabinoids could yield some impressive advantages in the pharmacological world.

Perhaps most exciting is the ability to isolate different compounds for study and treatment of particular diseases. Cannabinoids found in very small concentrations in marijuana plants could also be produced in more potent dosages.

“Marijuana produces lots and lots of THC, and lots and lots of another compound called CBD, but it also isn’t a very good source of some of the minor cannabinoids,” says Jonathan Page, CEO of Anandia Labs and a University of British Columbia botany professor.

I wonder how civilization will change when basement biotech guys start getting into this act?

We know what happened to computers when the basement boys got involved. I was lucky enough to be one of them. It put me on a path to become an aerospace engineer without a degree.