Researchers identify how opium poppies synthesize promising new drug

After only four years of intensive research, scientists from the University of Calgary have identified a pathway of genes in opium poppies that underlies the synthesis of noscapine — a promising cancer-fighting agent and a cough suppressant used in many European countries. Researchers Peter Facchini, recent PhD graduate Thuy Dang, and postdoctoral fellow Xue Chen identified 10 of the 11 dedicated steps encoded by a cluster of genes that lead to noscapine biosynthesis. Their work adds to knowledge of how the opium poppy makes the compound noscapine. Read more here.