Engineered Yeast Producing Cancer Drugs Could Protect a Rare Flower

Millions of people worldwide take the cancer medicines etoposide and teniposide to treat lung cancer, blood cancers and other diseases. However, manufacturing these drugs is complicated and inefficient because it depends on chemical precursors obtained from plants in the Podophylloideae subfamily. One important source is the endangered Himalayan plant Sinopodophyllum hexandrum, also known as Podophyllum hexandrum. The species grows in high-altitude regions of the Himalayas. Researchers have now described a new biosynthetic pathway that uses genetically modified baker’s yeast to produce the drug precursor¹.

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