Beer Yeast Turned Into Cheap Malaria Drug in Gates-Funded Study

Baker’s yeast, commonly used to make beer and bread, can be engineered to produce a key ingredient for malaria drugs, according to researchers who say the method offers a new way to boost needed supplies.

Antimalarial medications save millions of lives, yet the supply of the sweet wormwood tree, the source of the most effective treatment, artemisinin, can fluctuate year to year, creating shortages. The study published today by the journal Nature, and funded by the Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, describes how the new process boosts production of artemisinic acid by almost 16 times the amount of previous approaches.