To produce the artemisinin, Keasling and his team have genetically modified microbes. This approach, one of the first triumphs of a field called synthetic biology, also produces a reliably pure compound. While synthetic biology can be used to create any number of useful chemicals called isoprenoids that form the basis for products such as perfumes and flavorings, Keasling has chosen to focus on the creation of much-needed pharmaceuticals, such as artemisinin, for the developing world.
Extraction of artemisinin from the wormwood plant is labor intensive and, in some developing countries, it is produced by a diesel fuel purification process that may retain toxic impurities in the final drug product. UC Berkeley will complete development of the synthetic process and maximize production of artemisinic acid, a precursor to artemisinin. The breakthrough technology that makes all this possible was developed by Keasling and his UC Berkeley team over the past 10 years.
Amyris will develop processes to produce large quantities of microbial artemisinic acid and chemically convert it to artemisinin and other effective medicines. These new processes can be easily scaled to meet the enormous demand for low-cost pharmaceuticals in developing countries.
"We're focusing our groundbreaking technology on producing a known pharmaceutical -- the most effective antimalarial out there -- so that it reaches the people who need it most. This is just the beginning of drug production using synthetic biology," said Jack D. Newman, Ph.D., a founding scientist at Amyris.
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Contact: Robert Sanders
rsanders@berkeley.edu
510-643-6998
University of California - Berkeley
13-Dec-2004