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The Corroboree

glimpse

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Posts posted by glimpse

  3. Posted

    Experts have warned regulators to prepare for a flood of “home-brew” heroin, after researchers found a way of synthesising ­opiates from sugar.

    The technique, reported this morning in the journal Nature Chemical Biology, could lead to cheaper painkillers and new antibiotics and cancer drugs, but co-author John Dueber said criminal gangs would soon be able to emulate the feat in suburban kitchens.

    “We’re likely looking at a timeline of a couple of years, not a decade or more, when sugar-fed yeast could reliably produce a controlled substance (such as morphine),” said Dr Dueber, a bioengineer at the University of California, Berkeley. “We need to be out in front so that we can mitigate potential abuse.”

    The Berkeley researchers harnessed advances in synthetic ­biology and DNA sequencing to work out how to turn glucose into morphine. They genetically engineered baker’s yeast to produce a mutated version of a pigment-producing enzyme from sugar beets.

    The modified yeast proved able to convert tyrosine, an amino acid derived from glucose, into the chemical dopamine. An added enzyme from poppies triggered further reactions culminating in an opiate precursor called reticuline.

    Researchers from Concordia University in Montreal had already worked out how to use the yeast to convert reticuline into morphine, in a study published last month.

    The latest research means opium poppies are no longer needed to produce opiates, with a single strain of yeast now able to execute the entire 15-step chemical process. Lead author William DeLoache said this would accelerate research towards new drugs such as the analgesic codeine, the antifungal sanguinarine and the blood pressure medication papaverine — all extracted from poppies.

    Mr DeLoache, a Berkeley doctoral student, said yeast had much faster “growth cycles” than plants. “Moving to microbes dramatically reduces the cost of drug discovery,” he said. “We can easily tune the DNA of the yeast and quickly test the results.”

    But in a related comment, Massachusetts Institute of Technology academics warn that anyone with basic fermentation skills and access to the yeast strain may soon be able to grow morphine-producing yeast in home-brew beer kits. They recommend regulating access to yeast strains through licensing and tight security.

    Mr DeLoache said companies that synthesise and sell DNA sequences should also be more tightly regulated. “Restrictions are already in place for sequences tied to pathogenic organisms like smallpox,” he said. “Maybe it’s time we also look at sequences for producing controlled substances.”

    • Like 1

  6. Posted · Edited by glimpse

    No I really can't post a youtube video.I have posted a few in the
    Past but I swear every time I do it it seems
    To be different, I know I copy and paste the share code
    Thingy but I think I have tried pasting it fricken everywhere
    With no luck so far lately. I was hoping it was a Firefox thing
    But I have a feeling it's more of a brainfart thing

  22. Posted · Edited by glimpse

    welcome to sab :)

    I hope you find an answer to your issues, anxiety and depression are/is horrible

    congratulations on the pending family member, That was the most awesome thing that has ever happened to me..completely changed my life for the better.

    you have probably heard it already but good diet and exercise can make such a positive difference to your day to day feelings

    sorry i cant really help more

    edit: as for using natural resources to cure anxiety/depression

    you could come up to the sunny coast for a surf :)

    giphy.gif
    • Like 3

  23. Posted · Edited by glimpse

    carpobrotus i think, aussie rambler or pigs face?? i think.....i think i heard it can be used to ease insect bites

    edit: produces a red-purple berry fruit, which was used by the native aborigines as a food source. The flesh of the fruit is said to have a taste similar to salty apples. The roasted leaves have been used as a salt substitute. Early European explorers used the plant as an anti-scurvy treatment. The juice of the leaves can also be used to relieve pain from insect bites.

    https://www.anbg.gov.au/gnp/interns-2005/carpobrotus-glaucescens.html

    • Like 1
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