A new study sheds light on the behavior of yeast cells in the gut, paving the way for new lines of yeast that more efficiently produce therapeutic drugs tailored to address specific diseases.
“Yeast is promising as a drug-delivery platform,” says Nathan Crook, corresponding author of the study and an associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at North Carolina State University. “Previous work has shown that yeast cells can be modified to produce specific molecules in the gut, such as therapeutics that can reduce inflammation, help fight disease, and so on. However, while we know that yeasts can do this, we don’t know how the yeast cells are doing this. Which genes are turned off or on? What is the yeast eating? Is the yeast producing any other molecules that might be harmful?
“Our…