July 8, 2022 -- Detecting and optimizing the production of therapeutic molecules is complex and time-consuming. However, a new bacterial tool developed by scientists at the University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin) has the potential to improve and speed up the drug manufacturing process, according to an article published on July 7 in Nature Chemical Biology.
While many drugs are extracted from plants, the UT-Austin scientists say that bacteria are an inexpensive, efficient, and sustainable alternative. The researchers have developed biosensors, derived from Escherichia coli bacteria, that they contend can be adapted to detect an array of therapeutic compounds accurately and in just hours compared to weeks or months with current technology.
"There are currently no biosensors for most plant metabolites," said Simon d'Oelsnitz, first author on the paper and a research scientist in the department of molecular biosciences, in a written statement. "With this technique, it should be possible to create biosensors for a wide range of medicines."
Researchers developed the biosensors for several types of common drugs, including cough suppressants and vasodilators, as well as engineering their own bacteria to produce a compound found in several U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs.
"While this is not the first biosensor, this technique allows them to be developed faster and more efficiently," d'Oelsnitz said. "In turn, that opens the door to more medicines being produced using biosynthesis."
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