Until now, much of the medicines we use to treat dire illnesses have been derived from plants. But that means we are dependent on natural conditions out of our control, such as drought, pollination, floods, and climate, for crucial building blocks. One result is high cost and drug shortages. Stanford Bioengineer Christina Smolke says the time has come to change all that, so her lab is developing new ways to create the drugs we need, including using the yeast from beer to develop new painkillers. “Wouldn’t it be better if we could just make our own medicines?” she asks.  

Christina D. Smolke is an Associate Professor, Associate Chair of Education, and W.M. Keck Foundation Faculty Scholar in the Department of Bioengineering and, by courtesy, Chemical Engineering at Stanford University. Her research program develops new tools that are rapidly advancing our ability to engineer and manipulate living organisms. Her research group has also engineered baker's yeast to make complex plant-based medicines from sugar, changing the ways in which we source and discover medicines. Smo,lke has been honored with numerous awards, including Nature’s 10, AIMBE fellow, NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, WTN Award in Biotechnology, and TR35 Award. Christina has co-founded two companies based on technologies developed in her laboratory.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx