STEP aside synthetic chemists. Novel alkaloid molecules that chemists can only dream of synthesising in the lab have been made using the cellular machinery of the periwinkle plant.
Naturally occurring alkaloids such as morphine and the anti-cancer drug are already extracted from plants for medical applications. The chemical complexity of alkaloids makes creating new ones in the lab, or even giving existing ones slightly different properties, very difficult.
So and Weerawat Runguphan at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology turned to the Madagascar periwinkle Catharanthus roseus (pictured), a plant that naturally makes vinblastine via a complex series of chemical reactions.
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They modified the gene for one enzyme involved in an early stage of the process so that it retained its role in making alkaloids, but acted on different starting compounds than it does naturally. When they inserted the gene into periwinkle cells and cultured them in various compounds, the cells made a range of new alkaloids, which could turn out to have medical uses (Nature, ).