Microbes engineered for low-cost production of anti-cancer drug, Taxol
Thursday, September 30, 2010 - 15:14
in Biology & Nature
Researchers have now engineered E. coli bacteria to produce large quantities of a critical compound that is a precursor to the cancer drug Taxol, originally isolated from the bark of the Pacific yew tree. The tree's bacteria can produce 1,000 times more of the precursor, known as taxadiene, than any other engineered microbial strain.