Modified microalgae converts sunlight into valuable medicine

A special type of microalgae will soon produce valuable chemicals such as cancer treatment drugs and much more just by harnessing energy from the sun, suggest researchers.

Researchers from Copenhagen Plant Science Centre at University of Copenhagen have succeeded in manipulating a strain of microalgae to form complex molecules to an unprecedented extent. This may pave the way for an efficient, inexpensive and environmentally friendly method of producing a variety of chemicals, such as pharmaceutical compounds.

"So basically, the idea is that we hijack a portion of the energy produced by the microalgae from their photosynthetic systems. By redirecting that energy to a genetically modified part of the cell capable of producing various complex chemical materials, we induce the light driven biosynthesis of these compounds," says Post Doc Agnieszka Janina Zygadlo Nielsen.

The researchers have as such modified microalgae genetically to become small chemical factories with a build in power supply. According to the research team's study, this basically allows sunlight being transformed into everything ranging from chemotherapy or bioplastics to valuable flavor and fragrance compounds.

As Agnieszka Janina Zygadlo Nielsen describes, the problem with many of these substances today is namely that they are extremely expensive and difficult to make, and therefore produced only in small quantities in the medicinal plants.

"A cancer drug like Taxol for instance is made from old yew trees, which naturally produce the substance in their bark. It is a cumbersome process which results in expensive treatments. If we let the microalgae run the production this problem could be obsolete," she explains.