Plants Engineered to Produce Drugs

A group of scientists at MIT have gotten plant cells to express a gene that codes for an enzyme that will make specific molecules. The gene is from bacteria, and codes for the plant to attach a halogen, like chlorine, to an alkaloid that the plants already make. These halogenated alkaloids are very difficult to make in a laboratory, and the plants don't make them on their own. One type halogenated alkaloid, called vinblastine, is used to treat some forms of cancer, and that's what the researchers are trying to make. As of now, only the roots of the plant can make the compound, but there are hopes that eventually the entire plant will be able to efficiently produce vinblastine. They are using a plant called perewinkle to produce the compounds. It is always amazing to me how we find more and more efficient ways to create things. This drug, vinblastine, is very difficult to synthesize in a lab, and using transgenic plants to synthesize the drug for us will produce more of the compound faster then we could.

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<http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101103141533.htm>