Yeast engineered to ferment sugars into chemotherapy drug precursors

Yeast have been genetically engineered to produce precursors of a chemotherapy drug that’s usually derived from plants. The team then coupled the precursors using established semisynthesis methods to make vinblastine. The work shows how such microbial cell factories could boost the supply of vinblastine and thousands of other natural products, as well as produce a potentially infinite array of pharmaceutically promising analogues that don’t exist in nature.

Vinblastine was first isolated in 1958 from the Madagascar periwinkle, Catharanthus roseus. The monoterpene indole alkaloid (MIA) is widely used as a treatment for several types of cancer by blocking fast-growing cells. It is on the World Health Organisation’s essential medicines list and, in 2020, the US Food and Drugs Administration listed it as a drug in short supply.