Trend Technology 5: microbes given transferred genes produce target molecules in fermentation tanks

Summary

Precision fermentation is the fifth emerging technology in the report, producing valuable molecules with microbes rather than the organisms that originally made them. Every protein, fat, pigment or drug compound a living thing produces is encoded somewhere in its genome. Scientists locate the responsible genes and insert them into a microbial host, usually yeast, bacteria or fungi. The microbe reads these added instructions like its own and makes the molecule as part of normal cellular activity. It is then grown in large fermentation tanks on simple feedstocks such as sugar, and the output is purified to be chemically identical to the original. The report cites artemisinin, once dependent on sweet wormwood harvests, and observes that AI modelling now shortens molecule design from years to months.