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Biohackers Are Engineering Yeast To Make THC
meghan elizabeth writes How do you get weed without the weed? By genetically engineering yeast to produce THC, of course. Once theorized in a stoner magazine column more than a decade ago, a biotech startup working in Ireland is actively trying to transplant the genetic information that codes for both THC and another cannabinoid called CBD into yeast so that "marijuana" can be grown in a lab—no plants necessary.
So let's say I start a company that uses GMO THC yeast to make bread dough. The dough does not contain any THC; just the yeast that can create it. I sell this bread dough in your supermarket's freezer section as unrisen, unbaked loaves.
You purchase the bread dough, take it home, thaw it out, let it rise overnight. (Or, for an hour or two in a warm oven.) It happily produced CO2 and THC, the bread rises, you then bake it. You then can make some 'fun' sandwiches. Is my business legal?
Guess we know why this is coming out of Ireland.
so this will make it easy to mass produce, and make it cheaper to use in electronic ciagarettes?
Can you get arrested for having THC oil or does it have to be a part of the plant?
In my lab, we call them scientists (or chemist, biologist, etc).
SJWs are the new boogeyman. -Me
The law is not equipped to forsee such advances in drugs. However if this is commercially possible, and this becomes popular, THC enabled yeast will be added to lists of forbidden substances. (just like "bath salts")
Just sayin...
If I'm not back again this time tomorrow...
nuf said
Hear that women? Yes, you can grow THC in your.... whowhodilly. Now get started on that THC infection... we can negotiate about it later.
Yeast with THC sounds like a perfect combination, get high while eating something baked and it could be any bread, a dope bagel, a funny muffin, a nostalgic croissant, the branding possibilities are endless!
You can't handle the truth.
Dude, we are totally gonna get baked.
They better act fast if they want to skirt the law with yeast, while there's still a law to break. In USA, Pot will be legal nationwide by 2018
At least that's been my bet. According to the LA Times today, the DEA in Washington is showing "fatigue" at enforcing it and the White House is ready to give up on the "war on pot". http://www.latimes.com/nation/...
Gently reply
Brick weed will get you high and you can easily concentrate it to 80+% THC. However, people pay money for smell, taste, and even appearance. That's why stores still sell tons of flowers even though it costs twice as much per unit of THC compared to concentrates made from the stuff they cut off the flowers.
stick to natural goodness
just think if this yeast got into the open and contaminated bakers, breweries, cheese-makers, and so on.
How long until they make yeast illegal?
I'm really looking forward to a prison sentence for trying to make my own bread
I've got better things to do tonight than die.
They are genetically engineering stuff to produce stuff that is already available? Benefit would be....?
Actually, I've been calling for someone to graft the THC-production complex into kudzu. That way, either we get government help to wipe it out, or the government finally gives up; either way, kudzu becomes useful for something.
Of course, I don't have much deep knowledge about GM or plant biology, so coming up with this idea was about on a par with saying "somebody ought to build a flying car". Here's hoping that the task these folks are tackling turns out more tractable than that one.
On the making of medicines, bread, wine, yoghurt, cheese,,,,,,,
Seriously though, imagine if such a strain takes over the world's yeast supplies as deeply as Monsanto's patented DNA has the world's corn supplies.
No doubt, many would be looking forward to it.
Tricky meth cooks have been using yeast for years to convert huge tanks of watered down benzaldehyde into L-PAC which is a very straight and industrious method to produce methylamphetamine without using common precursors. the more generations into it the more selective the yeast remain to better convert the aldehyde. or specialized strains are available.
also the use of UVB to selectively mutate a semi-common fungus which grows along side highways to produce LSD precursors via batch fermentation when the fungus normally will not.
harvesting olivetol producing lichen to convert into THC
people been at this for ages.
They are genetically engineering stuff to produce stuff that is already available? Benefit would be....?
I'm not going to bother with genetic engineering. I'm going to get a 3D printer, download THC.sdl and CBD.sdl, and print my own cannabinoids.
Which reminds me I also have to print a new bong because this one is starting to smell like yeast.
I'm not a user, but my understanding is that pot is a very hearty plant, easy to grow and cheap to grow. Why invest money, time, and effort in learning to get the THC without it?
Or, you could just go to the store and buy some.
Guy from Seattle
Imagine you could use yeast to make alcohol!
Great, i like making bread.. Will i now have to get a license to buy yeast ?
When you outlaw yeast.. only outlaws will eat sandwiches..
There is also a female joke in there too, but ill leave that one alone.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
For over 20 years it has been discussed that it might be possible to get the genes into your lawn's Bermuda grass.
Then your gardener could really rake in the grass for real dough.
Let me know when they have yeast that produces MDMA.
Vaping is already a drug delivery device for nicotine and THC, this just takes the whole nasty 'growing' part of the process out of the equation.
I suppose this is just evolution in action. We have the useless ones self-identify through things like vaping..
Dude, don't bogart the bread.
On the making of medicines, bread, wine, yoghurt, cheese,,,,,,,
Seriously though, imagine if such a strain takes over the world's yeast supplies as deeply as Monsanto's patented DNA has the world's corn supplies.
So... near zero?
No doubt, many would be looking forward to it.
Sorry, but there are lots of very specialized yeast strains. You don't use the same yeast for wine as you do for beer, and that's different from the one you use for bread. Etc. San Francisco sourdough bread used to be made from a regionally available wild yeast, but I think things may have changed so that it no longer lives here. Certainly given the urban levels of pollution I wouldn't want to depend on catching a wild yeast. There was one bakery that used to have a baker who kept his culture growing on his hairy chest, but the food & drug people forbade this., even though it had been safe and popular for decades.
You aren't going to get one strain of yeast to take over the world. Particularly not one that's become dependent on being cultured in a lab.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
One of the biochemists I work with made THC producing bacteria as part of his masters project, it was apparently the easiest way of getting high purity THC to use as a solvent for the next stage of the project.
Of course some of it went 'missing' but there were problems growing something like this in non lab conditions. Once any other bacteria get on the plate they quickly out compete the one's that are spending all their energy making pointless extra chemicals. While that was bacteria not yeast I expect it's fairly similar.
Sure, medicinal cannibas may have 250 active compounds, but how many of those - individually or in combination - are necessary to treat 95% of patients?
If we can identify the ones needed to treat the vast majority of patients and synthesize them or find a bio-factory (e.g. yeast) that we can control much better than the traditional source (the plant), we can deliver drugs that are more pure and more consistent than your average joint or brownie, yet still do the job for almost all patients.
If I get cancer and need this for medical reasons, I would much prefer to take a drug that has a known, consistent potency and known, consistent nominally-inactive ingredients than something I cut off a plant.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
With only THC and none of the other cannabinoids all you are just going to get is very anxious and very paranoid and I doubt anybody wants that. We discover something new about the endocannabinoid system almost every day. If you expose yourselves to chronic high levels of THC alone you are going to find some of those receptors downregulated retarding the action of GABA. Cannabidiol (CBD) is essential, it is a weak cannabinoid receptor antagonist/agonist the role depends on dose concentration and is highly anxiolytic. Trust me you want it.
A company like Luxco, maker of Everclear, can benefit from economies of scale by scaling up production volumes of its products. But in order to do that, the company has to try to be everything to everyone.
Perhaps the goats have been too busy bending over and pulling their behinds apart.
There's plenty of biased pro-drug websites on the internet, such as NORML, that can carry this kind of story.
Slashdot doesn't need to stoop down and run articles that only the true bottom feeders of society would have interest in. Potheads aren't people, and they aren't Slashdot readers either. Except for the old hippes with low UIDs that baked their brain decades ago, or the new kids who embrace whatever fad their peers pressure them into supporting.
" You don't use the same yeast for wine as you do for beer, and that's different from the one you use for bread."
I do, and I get great results every time.
"Turbo" yeasts and specialty brewer's yeasts tend to suck. Fleischmann's active dry yeast? Works like a charm. I can even make 20% port non-fortified with that stuff.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Maybe, maybe not.....
If this gets made, and becomes viable in the wild, lambic brewers will be in for quite a ride.
Industrial hemp is banned because of the drug ban despite the fact it is not the smoking kind of hemp. Under that logic, they have ban all yeast because 1 species can make you high.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
Good luck since THC isn't a protein. You need to encode the machine.
It was only a matter of time because it is a logical step, but so is the follow concern that I have. A significant number of humans, including all immature ones, can be seriously harmed by chronic exposure to THC as it interferes with brain development and yeasts are able to live in and on the human body therefore if this GMO gets into the environment and becomes a wild yeast it could become a serious public health threat that may be impossible to contain once it is out of the lab.
The unintended consequence of this disaster will be the development of a THC vaccine that will be given to all children to protect them thus making the point of being able to brew THC moot because from then on nobody will be able utilise THC anyway, from any source.
STOP THE WORK IMMEDIATELY!!!
Here is why, yeast can grow in or on your body, or an infant's body. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000964.htm
The rest of the details are here http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=5396753&cid=47440025
Growers aren't Showers. And these guys think advertising the fact they can make the active ingredient in a test tube isn't going to attract the Law? Good luck with that.
a biotech startup working in Ireland... bla bla bla... so that new medicinal (and, perhaps recreational) "marijuana" can be grown in a lab—no plants necessary.
If they are working with yeast in Ireland their goal is to make beer that has alcohol THC and CBD.
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
A silver lining to a yeast infection!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
And it shall be known as Marley Bread.
That or Holy Bread.
"Got any bread for marley bread?"
I think we may have different definitions for "good tasting". I did do that, however, before I was of drinking age. (And then I didn't even know enough to remove the sediment. Yuck, but it was alcohol.)
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
There are articles in Science magazine from approximately 2004-05 or so , authored by numerous people, bu the main name to look for is Tillman Gengross. The articles explain in great detail how he and his technical team managed to re-engineer the yeast organism to produce human proteins. It was explained to me that with this new technology very pure vaccines, among other substances, could readily be produced. Merck now owns the technology and it appears to be the basis of their move to focus on new drugs based on. "Biologics". So if yeast metabolically can be re-engineered to produce all sorts of pharmaceuticals, I see no reason why yeast could not be re-engineered to produce THC. In any case, bio-engineered yeasts are already the main source of human insulin. Production of THC is a completely different breed of chemical than any of the human drugs now being produced, but if these people have a very deep source of funds and really smart bio engineers and the high throughput equipment needed to do what they at trying to do, it is entirely possible that they could succeed. Again, Needed are smart bioengineers, a very good source of money and the right equipment. We shall see, I guess.
Is the already available and marketed "THC coffee" ...
http://mirthprovisions.com/products/
Frankly, I often find that mixing alcohol with THC kills the buzz.
I prefer my headbender without the deleterious effects of alcohol.
The stuff I make with Fleicshmann's tastes better than most stuff one gets at the grocery store here in California.
I make mine usually from hibiscus tea and wild red grapes found in the Santa Ana riverbed, and raw cane sugar.
Absolutely fucking tasty.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Both wine and "ale" beers are made with saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast. Although there are different strands preferred for different styles of wine and beer, the differences shouldn't be too over the top. You're not going to end up with a fine best bitter with champagne yeast, nor are you going to get a competition-standard claret with ale yeast- but the results will be drinkable and tasty enough. See, for example, "champale" (beer brewed with champagne yeast which has been sold commercially).
Lager is made with a different species of yeast (s. carlsbergensis). So using a wine yeast is never likely to make a decent approximation of a lager.
Source: Have been making wines and beers for a decade, including many experimental batches as per the above.
Sounds plausible. I find most commercial beers undrinkable. Guiness is, however, quite good, especially if it's not too chilly. (It really *is* best at room temperature.)
So possily I'm just too picky.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
I like stories like this because they make my uid relevant again. Oh to be 19 and picking a random uid while stoned. Too bad you can't change them on a one time basis or something. What a waste of a ~500k UID.
I'm a firm believer in the philosophy of a ruling class, especially since I rule.