• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Health

Psychedelic compound from magic mushrooms produced in yeast

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
April 16, 2020
in Health
Reading Time: 2 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

Scientists from DTU Biosustain prove that psilocybin, a potential drug for treating depression and other psychological conditions can be produced in yeast.

IMAGE

Credit: The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability

Psilocybin mushrooms have been found to have minimal harmful effects and could potentially benefit those with depression. But they remain illegal even though they offer a groundbreaking alternative to several under-treated psychological conditions.

Nevertheless, psychedelics are currently riding a wave of positive momentum brought on by cannabis, and if psilocybin gets approved as a pharmaceutical drug, production in yeast appears to be the most commercially viable option.

“It’s infeasible and way too expensive to extract psilocybin from magic mushrooms and the best chemical synthesis methods require expensive and difficult to source starting substrates. Thus, there is a need to bring down the cost of production and to provide a more consistent supply chain,” says Nick Milne, former Postdoc at DTU Biosustain and CSO and Co-founder of Octarine Bio.

Bio-based production of psilocybin has gained big interest and researchers have already proved small-scale production in E. coli. However, production in bacteria comes with a wide range of concerns which can be addressed by using yeast instead.

In yeast, the scientists prove that psilocybin can be produced de novo, which means that you can produce the molecule by simply growing the yeast with sugar and other nutrients, without the need to add any other starting substrates.

Producing psilocybin de novo in E. coli is difficult since a key enzyme in the biosynthetic pathway doesn’t work in bacteria, and so to get around this problem you need to add an expensive starting substrate, making the whole production process too costly.

“Since yeast and Psilocybe mushrooms are quite closely related species, this enzyme works very well in yeast, providing a much more cost-efficient alternative,” says group leader at DTU Biosustain Irina Borodina.

Additionally, yeast also performs better in large-scale fermentation due to its long history in the beer brewing process, and also in the purification process since E. coli produces additional potentially harmful compounds that you would not like to have in your final product.

###

Media Contact
Anders Østerby Mønsted
[email protected]

Original Source

https://www.biosustain.dtu.dk/nyhedsbase/Nyhed?id={9693FEFB-6FB7-4113-9FF0-4AC3C475D11C}

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ymben.2019.12.007

Tags: Alternative MedicineBiochemistryBiologyBiomedical/Environmental/Chemical EngineeringBiotechnologyCell BiologyMedicine/HealthMolecular BiologyPharmaceutical ChemistryPharmaceutical Science
Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

Tsimané woman and child

For clues to healthy brain aging, look to the Bolivian Amazon

March 20, 2023
Dr. Donald Kohn

UCLA-led study uses base editing to correct mutation that causes rare immune deficiency

March 20, 2023

Scientists use tardigrade proteins for human health breakthrough

March 20, 2023

Inbreeding contributes to decline of endangered killer whales

March 20, 2023
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • ChatPandaGPT

    Insilico Medicine brings AI-powered “ChatPandaGPT” to its target discovery platform

    61 shares
    Share 24 Tweet 15
  • Northern and southern resident orcas hunt differently, which may help explain the decline of southern orcas

    44 shares
    Share 18 Tweet 11
  • Skipping breakfast may compromise the immune system

    42 shares
    Share 17 Tweet 11
  • Insular dwarfs and giants more likely to go extinct

    35 shares
    Share 14 Tweet 9

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

The Minderoo-Monaco Commission on Plastics and Human Health issues sweeping new report

3000+ billion tons of ice lost from Antarctic Ice Sheet over 25 years 

Richard McIndoe, PhD, will direct Coordinating Unit for new, national research initiative in diabetes, obesity

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 48 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In