Pans-Advocate
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2009
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Harvard scientists to make LSD factory from microbes
Jake Wintermute wanted to save the world rather than make a pile of money. A PhD student in Pam Silver's synthetic biology lab at Harvard Medical School he worked on biofuels in the hope of one day making them commercial alternatives to fossil fuels.
From time to time, venture capitalists would come by for a chat. They were hard-nosed business types who had an eye on the bottom line and some tough advice to share. They said developing biofuels was a terrible business strategy, because fuel was so cheap. Why not make expensive compounds, like pharmaceuticals, instead?
The advice got Wintermute thinking. What was the most valuable compound they could make with the toolkit of synthetic biology? Some research came up with a few candidates including a few very sophisticated cancer drugs. But another compound was up there in monetary terms: LSD. The value by weight was astronomical.
more after the link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2011/jun/21/scientists-make-lsd-from-microbes
Jake Wintermute wanted to save the world rather than make a pile of money. A PhD student in Pam Silver's synthetic biology lab at Harvard Medical School he worked on biofuels in the hope of one day making them commercial alternatives to fossil fuels.
From time to time, venture capitalists would come by for a chat. They were hard-nosed business types who had an eye on the bottom line and some tough advice to share. They said developing biofuels was a terrible business strategy, because fuel was so cheap. Why not make expensive compounds, like pharmaceuticals, instead?
The advice got Wintermute thinking. What was the most valuable compound they could make with the toolkit of synthetic biology? Some research came up with a few candidates including a few very sophisticated cancer drugs. But another compound was up there in monetary terms: LSD. The value by weight was astronomical.
more after the link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2011/jun/21/scientists-make-lsd-from-microbes
