Spray‐Dried Engineered Escherichia coli Whole‐Cell Biocatalysts Enable Cell Recycling and In Vivo α‐Ketoglutarate and NADPH Regeneration for Efficient Codeine Manufacture
Ali Jahanian, Carlos Horacio Luna‐Flores, Xu Li, Sally L. Gras, Robert E. Speight · 2026
Read Spray‐Dried Engineered Escherichia coli Whole‐Cell Biocatalysts Enable Cell Recycling and In Vivo α‐Ketoglutarate and NADPH Regeneration for Efficient Codeine Manufacture by Ali Jahanian, Carlos Horacio Luna‐Flores, Xu Li, Sally L. Gras, Robert E. Speight (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13576866.txt.
Description
Ali Jahanian and four colleagues turn spray-dried bacteria into a reusable factory for making codeine, in a 2026 study. Codeine is a medicinal opioid normally refined from plant material. Their engineered Escherichia coli carry three poppy enzymes that convert thebaine into codeine in steps, yet fresh cells for each batch are costly.
Spray drying preserved over 85 percent of enzyme activity in the dried cells. A native bacterial enzyme inside the cells regenerated two helper chemicals the poppy enzymes need, so no outside supply was required. Over ten reuse cycles the dried cells held up well overall, though one enzyme lost 40 percent of its activity, matching its heat sensitivity. The process converted all the thebaine and averaged a 68 percent molar yield of codeine. The authors present spray-dried cells as a scalable, cheaper route.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Ali Jahanian, Carlos Horacio Luna‐Flores, Xu Li, Sally L. Gras, Robert E. Speight |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 44971 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |