Gates’ foundation to fund synthetic biology

“Microbes excel at producing complicated molecules,” Keasling said.

Synthetic biology involves taking a metabolic pathway found in nature and grafting it into the genetic code of a microbe like yeast or, as in the case of artemisinin, E. coli. While most people think of E. coli as harmful, molecular biologists call it the workhorse of their field, because its genetic sequence is well-understood and new generations can be produced in a half-hour.