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2022-10-27| R&D

Glowing Yeast and CBD; Biosensing at Boston College

by Eduardo Longoria
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Researchers at Boston College have bioengineered yeast (S. cerevisiae) cells to glow in the presence of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).  As discussed in their research published in Nature Communications, this makes a faster, simpler way to visually detect the presence of molecules relevant to the cannabinoids industry. With the recent acceptance of marijuana, this could be a major step in laboratories’ and companies’ quest to optimize cannabinoid production.

Related Article: Synthetic Biology: A Rising Interdisciplinary Field that Revolutionizes the Biomedical Industry

Biosynthetic Improvements in Cannabis Cultivation

To competitively reach scale and improve quality, research initially went into the selective breeding of cannabis plants to improve yield and reduce waste biomass. However, as bioengineering tools have improved and nature becomes more and more under human control, many institutions are trying to skip growing the plant and produce the molecules of interest in lab conditions. 

Skipping out on the plant can be done by bioengineering yeast cells, E.coli, as well as a few cell-free methods. Irrespective of the methods chosen by researchers or companies, they all cut costs by saving on land, personnel, and waste biomass that come with plant cultivation. These alternative methods can produce THC and CBD and more exotic and sometimes entirely synthetic cannabinoid compounds at yields unachievable otherwise. 

Despite this success, the institutions employing these methods have somewhat been made victims of their own success. The effort to create these artificial cells has and continues to yield a large number of strains, all with varying productive abilities, so it can be difficult to decide which is best for a particular task. However, this problem can have ripple effects by slowing the R&D process needed to move the industry forward. With so many strains of cannabinoid-producing cells, traditional lab tools like liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) take too long to analyze the contents of each strain cost-effectively. 

Making Biosensors from Bioengineered Yeast

This glowing bioengineered yeast can identify the presence of THC more affordably than the LC-MS can. Using a plate reader, technicians can correlate the intensity of light observed with the quantity of GFP; and the amount of THC present.

A Plate Reader Assay Results Graph

Rather than go through the expensive and technically demanding process of chromatography and spectrometry, all that is needed for precise and large-scale comparison are these living sensors and a plate reader. 

Optimized CB2 biosensor plate reader assay.

The plate reader allows researchers to examine 96 samples tined and compare them with each other at once at an estimated cost of ~ $0.1/sample. These biosensors can express human cannabinoid type 2 (CB2R). This receptor is part of the overall category of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs); that are responsible for cell reactions to chemicals that attach to their surface. This biosensor design is modular on account of GPCRs, and engineers can alter them to detect even non-cannabinoid chemicals like serotonin and fatty acids. 

Sensing Major Potential in Biotech

Biosynthetic devices like this sensor are able to be made from living things and limited resources. These devices can be kept in 2ml Eppendorf tubes and configured to detect a litany of substances. Along with their ease of carrying and storage, non-medical personnel can use these crucial tools to detect molecules of interest. 

This ability already shows great promise in the industry and has proven itself during the COVID-19 pandemic in the form of sensors for biomarkers of infection ranging from proteins to RNA. The continued research into the production and optimization of these devices can do a lot more than improve the efficiency of cannabis production. Biosensor implementation can make life science research of all kinds quicker and more efficient and make biologics more available to the world. 

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