Stanford University published a report on Thursday detailing their success in converting sugar into painkillers using genetically modified yeasts. If feasible, this new concoction could be the painkiller of choice for many patients in pain.

Most painkillers contain the chemical hydrocodone, which is extracted from poppies. Now, the Stanford team have successfully created yeasts that can manufacture hydrocodone in less than a week.

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Research head Christina Smolke explained that some DNA materials were injected into the yeast, which is basically "ordered" to produce sugar that will be converted to hydrocodone.

To produced one yeast cell, the team used more than 20 genes taken from sources which include a bacteria, an unnamed plant and a rat.

Smolke has high hopes that the newly discovered method will be a commercial success within a few years. Stanford University currently holds the patent rights for the team's yeast-sugar-painkiller conversion process.

However, the conversion process is still impractical by contemporary standards. Just to produce one dose of painkiller, around 4,500 gallons of the special yeast would be needed.

Poppies are generally used to produce painkillers such as morphine. This current breakthrough could potentially make the production of painkillers less dangerous, less expensive, and more efficient.

However, the yeast conversion process could also help illegal opium growers and traders make their activities much cheaper and also easier to hide from law enforcement officers.

Smolke admits that such a possibility does exist which is why she claims that unlike poppies, the yeast can be modified further to suit human needs and tolerance. Poppies, on the other hand, will always present the danger of addiction, she added.

Aside from painkillers, the specially crafted yeast can also be converted into artemisinin, a medicine to combat malaria. Scientists like Smolke are confident that the special yeasts can produce more new medicines.

Tagsyeast to painkiller, genetically modified yeast, christina smolke, Stanford University, hydrocodone, gene conversion, DNA injection, alternative painkillers, morphine addiction, painkiller addiction