Synthetic biology’s first malaria drug meets market resistance
Open accessIntegrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The text we found for this paper looks like another document, so the self-check wasn’t run.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Choi, K. R., Jang, W. D., Yang, D., Cho, J. S., Park, D., & Lee, S. Y. (2019) · Trends in biotechnology · doi:10.1016/j.tibtech.2019.01.003 · Cited by 565 · see citing works
Shen, Q., Zhang, L., Liao, Z., Wang, S., Yan, T., Shi, P., Liu, M., Fu, X., Pan, Q., Wang, Y., et al. (2018) · Molecular Plant · doi:10.1016/j.molp.2018.03.015 · Cited by 312 · see citing works
Integrated omics analysis of specialized metabolism in medicinal plants
Rai, A., Saito, K., & Yamazaki, M. (2017) · The Plant Journal · doi:10.1111/tpj.13485 · Cited by 290 · see citing works
Wasternack, C. H., & Strnad, M. (2017) · New Biotechnology · doi:10.1016/j.nbt.2017.09.007 · Cited by 247 · see citing works
Production of bioactive plant secondary metabolites through in vitro technologies—status and outlook
Wawrosch, C., & Zotchev, S. B. (2021) · Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology · doi:10.1007/s00253-021-11539-w · Cited by 252 · see citing works
“However, the process was not viable because of the then lower price of plant-derived drug in the fluctuating artemisinin market (Peplow 2016).”
BackgroundGLANDULAR TRICHOME ‐ SPECIFIC WRKY 1 promotes artemisinin biosynthesis in Artemisia annua
Chen, M., Yan, T., Shen, Q., Lu, X., Pan, Q., Huang, Y., Tang, Y., Fu, X., Liu, M., Jiang, W., et al. (2016) · New Phytologist · doi:10.1111/nph.14373 · Cited by 230 · see citing works
Genetic Control of Glandular Trichome Development
Chalvin, C., Drevensek, S., Dron, M., Bendahmane, A., & Boualem, A. (2020) · Trends in Plant Science · doi:10.1016/j.tplants.2019.12.025 · Cited by 179 · see citing works
Total biosynthesis of the cyclic AMP booster forskolin from Coleus forskohlii
Pateraki, I., Andersen‐Ranberg, J., Jensen, N. B., Wubshet, S. G., Heskes, A. M., Forman, V., Hallström, B. M., Hamberger, B., Motawia, M. S., Olsen, C. E., et al. (2017) · eLife · doi:10.7554/elife.23001 · Cited by 132 · see citing works
“However, this prominent model example is dependent on a costly organic chemical synthesis component to chemically convert artemisinic acid to artemisinin ( Peplow, 2016 ).”
BackgroundArtemisinin and artemisinin derivatives as anti-fibrotic therapeutics
Dolivo, D., Weathers, P., & Dominko, T. (2021) · Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B · doi:10.1016/j.apsb.2020.09.001 · Cited by 132 · see citing works
A Review of Biotechnological Artemisinin Production in Plants
Ikram, N. K. K., & Simonsen, H. T. (2017) · Frontiers in Plant Science · doi:10.3389/fpls.2017.01966 · Cited by 130 · see citing works
“The current production using plants with a “low” content of artemisinin can only just cover the global need, which have led to an increase in price (Peplow, 2016).”
BackgroundLiao, B., Shen, X., Li, X., Guo, S., Chen, S., Meng, Y., Liang, Y., Ding, D., Bai, J., Zhang, D., et al. (2022) · Molecular Plant · doi:10.1016/j.molp.2022.05.013 · Cited by 120 · see citing works
P450s controlling metabolic bifurcations in plant terpene specialized metabolism
Banerjee, A., & Hamberger, B. R. (2017) · Phytochemistry Reviews · doi:10.1007/s11101-017-9530-4 · Cited by 104 · see citing works
“This example of paclitaxel may well reflect two other high profile scenarios, underscoring the challenges met by Synthetic Biology in production of industrially relevant targets at commercially competitive level: artemisinin and morphine (Oye et al. 2015; Peplow 2016).”
BackgroundThe Yin and Yang of traditional Chinese and Western medicine
Fu, R., Li, J., Yu, H., Zhang, Y., Xu, Z., & Martin, C. R. (2021) · Medicinal Research Reviews · doi:10.1002/med.21793 · Cited by 108 · see citing works
“annua plants and extracting artemisinin from the leaves directly (<250 US$ per kg) and production in yeast has been limited since 2015.(28) Consequently, economics still dictates that the most cost‐effective means of producing artemisinin is the traditional way from leaves of A.”
BackgroundApproaches and Recent Developments for the Commercial Production of Semi-synthetic Artemisinin
Kung, S. H., Lund, S., Murarka, A., McPhee, D. J., & Paddon, C. J. (2018) · Frontiers in Plant Science · doi:10.3389/fpls.2018.00087 · Cited by 101 · see citing works
“Following the development of an industrial process for the chemical conversion of artemisinic acid to artemisinin, commercial production of semi-synthetic artemisinin began in 2013 (Paddon and Keasling, 2014; Peplow, 2016).”
MethodAccelerating the semisynthesis of alkaloid-based drugs through metabolic engineering
Ehrenworth, A. M., & Peralta‐Yahya, P. (2017) · Nature Chemical Biology · doi:10.1038/nchembio.2308 · Cited by 97 · see citing works
Czechowski, T., Larson, T. R., Catania, T. M., Harvey, D., Brown, G. D., & Graham, I. A. (2016) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1611567113 · Cited by 94 · see citing works
“The lack of a low-cost, scalable conversion process is considered to be a major factor in the failure so far of the semisynthetic route to sustainably impact the market, making it uncompetitive with plant-based production (11).”
BackgroundMarsafari, M., & Xu, P. (2020) · Metabolic Engineering Communications · doi:10.1016/j.mec.2019.e00121 · Cited by 91 · see citing works
“However, this process could not meet the increasing demand for artemisinin-based combination therapy with cost that is comparable to the agriculture-sourced artemisinin (Peplow, 2016).”
BackgroundEngineering biology applications for environmental solutions: potential and challenges
Lea‐Smith, D. J., Hassard, F., Coulon, F., et al. (2025) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-025-58492-0 · Cited by 95 · see citing works
“Whether this was due to potential competition from the new source is unknown 88 .”
Emerging Opportunities for Synthetic Biology in Agriculture
Goold, H. D., Wright, P., & Hailstones, D. (2018) · Genes · doi:10.3390/genes9070341 · Cited by 93 · see citing works
“A biosensor could be used to help identify the most productive strains in a population, as has been demonstrated in yeast cells with a ratiometric biosensor for para-hydroxybenzoic acid (PHBA) inside the cell [46].”
BackgroundMethodAccumulation of high-value bioproducts in planta can improve the economics of advanced biofuels
Yang, M., Baral, N. R., Simmons, B. A., Mortimer, J. C., Shih, P. M., & Scown, C. D. (2020) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2000053117 · Cited by 86 · see citing works
“For example, semisynthetic production of artemisinin is already commercialized and can achieve production costs at the very low end of the market price range (around $350/kg) (37, 38).”
BackgroundMa, Y., Xu, D., Yan, X., Wu, Z., Kayani, S. I., Shen, Q., Fu, X., Xie, L., Hao, X., Hassani, D., et al. (2021) · Plant Biotechnology Journal · doi:10.1111/pbi.13561 · Cited by 81 · see citing works
Artemisinin Biosynthesis in Non-glandular Trichome Cells of Artemisia annua
Judd, R., Bagley, M. C., Li, M., Zhu, Y., Lei, C., Yuzuak, S., Ekelöf, M., Pu, G., Zhao, X., Muddiman, D. C., et al. (2019) · Molecular Plant · doi:10.1016/j.molp.2019.02.011 · Cited by 75 · see citing works
Next-Generation Plant Metabolic Engineering, Inspired by an Ancient Chinese Irrigation System
Fu, R., Martin, C. R., & Zhang, Y. (2017) · Molecular Plant · doi:10.1016/j.molp.2017.09.002 · Cited by 70 · see citing works
“180 Production in yeast has met strong market resistance principally for economic reasons 181 and has had only modest market impact (Peplow, 2016).”
BackgroundInfluentialAn Efficient Chemoenzymatic Synthesis of Dihydroartemisinic Aldehyde
Demiray, M., Tang, X., Wirth, T., Faraldos, J. A., & Allemann, R. K. (2017) · Angewandte Chemie International Edition · doi:10.1002/anie.201609557 · Cited by 68 · see citing works
Scossa, F., Benina, M., Alseekh, S., Zhang, Y., & Fernie, A. R. (2018) · Planta Medica · doi:10.1055/a-0630-1899 · Cited by 68 · see citing works
“The process reached titers up to 25 mg/L of ar-temisinic acid, which is the maximum amount achieved so far [275]; this improved yeast system has, however, found modest market impact due to the lower costs associated to the direct extraction of artemisinin from plants [276].”
Innovative Tools and Strategies for Optimizing Yeast Cell Factories
Guirimand, G. G. Y., Kulagina, N., Papon, N., et al. (2020) · Trends in biotechnology · doi:10.1016/j.tibtech.2020.08.010 · Cited by 64 · see citing works
Xie, D.-Y., Ma, D.-M., Judd, R., & Jones, A. L. (2016) · Phytochemistry Reviews · doi:10.1007/s11101-016-9480-2 · Cited by 63 · see citing works
“Although this approach has not been cost effective to produce artemisinin (Peplow 2016), it has shown a significant potential to supplement artemisinin supply to battle against malaria.”
BackgroundFlavonoid Versus Artemisinin Anti-malarial Activity in Artemisia annua Whole-Leaf Extracts
Czechowski, T., Rinaldi, M. A., Famodimu, M. T., van Veelen, M., Larson, T. R., Winzer, T., Rathbone, D. A., Harvey, D., Horrocks, P., & Graham, I. A. (2019) · Frontiers in Plant Science · doi:10.3389/fpls.2019.00984 · Cited by 61 · see citing works
“Additionally, a semi-40 synthetic alternative has been developed through precursor biosynthesis in yeast and chemical 41 conversion to artemisinin (Peplow, 2016).”
MethodHenkhaus, N. A., Bartlett, M. E., Gang, D. R., Grumet, R., Jordon‐Thaden, I. E., Lorence, A., Lyons, E. H., Miller, S., Murray, S. C., Nelson, A. D. L., et al. (2020) · Plant Direct · doi:10.1002/pld3.252 · Cited by 62 · see citing works
“…deepen our understanding of what therapeutics and other useful specialized metabolites, plants, and their associated biota might provide; one example is synthetic biology production of artemisinin, an ancient Chinese herbal remedy, as a malarial therapeutic (Ikram & Simonsen, 2017; Peplow, 2016).”
Zhang, F., Xiang, L., Yu, Q., Zhang, H., Zhang, T., Zeng, J., Chen, G., Li, L., Fu, X., Shen, Q., et al. (2017) · Journal of Experimental Botany · doi:10.1093/jxb/erx444 · Cited by 59 · see citing works
“The Chinese herbal plant, Artemisia annua, is the only commercially available resource for artemisinin production (Peplow, 2016); however, the artemisinin content is very low in the plants and this has led to a global shortage in its supply for malarial treatment (Tang et al.”
BackgroundMicrobial production of novel sulphated alkaloids for drug discovery
Matsumura, E., Nakagawa, A., Tomabechi, Y., Ikushiro, S., Sakaki, T., Katayama, T., Yamamoto, K., Kumagai, H., Sato, F., & Minami, H. (2018) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-018-26306-7 · Cited by 61 · see citing works
Factors affecting the competitiveness of bacterial fermentation
Lee, J. A., Kim, H. U., Na, J., Ko, Y., Cho, J. S., & Lee, S. Y. (2022) · Trends in biotechnology · doi:10.1016/j.tibtech.2022.10.005 · Cited by 58 · see citing works
Shi, P., Fu, X., Liu, M., Shen, Q., Jiang, W., Li, L., Sun, X., & Tang, K. (2017) · Plant Cell Tissue and Organ Culture (PCTOC) · doi:10.1007/s11240-017-1173-z · Cited by 50 · see citing works
“Although these methods have certain effect to enhance artemisinin content, they cannot provide all artemisinin the world needs (Aquil et al. 2009; Corsello and Garg 2015; Liu et al. 2011; Peplow 2016).”
Blatt-Janmaat, K. L., & Qu, Y. (2021) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences · doi:10.3390/ijms22052454 · Cited by 44 · see citing works
“Despite the invention of a synthetic biology marvel capable of producing 25 g/L artemisinic acid in yeast, the majority of world artemisinin is still harvested from plants due to the low price of plant artemisinin as a result of plant breeding, agronomy development, and the supplydemand self-regulation [105].”
BackgroundMa, D., Li, G., Zhu, Y., & Xie, D. (2017) · Frontiers in Plant Science · doi:10.3389/fpls.2017.00077 · Cited by 44 · see citing works
“In 2014, Sanofi, Inc. developed its capacity to produce 60 tons synthetic semi-synthesis artemisinin (SSA) through synthetic biology of artemisinic acid (Turconi et al., 2014; Corsello and Garg, 2015; Peplow, 2016).”
BackgroundInfluentialPlant secretory structures: more than just reaction bags
Tissier, A. F. (2017) · Current Opinion in Biotechnology · doi:10.1016/j.copbio.2017.08.003 · Cited by 44 · see citing works
Maximizing the stability of metabolic engineering‐derived whole‐cell biocatalysts
Kadisch, M., Willrodt, C., Hillen, M., Bühler, B., & Schmid, A. (2017) · Biotechnology Journal · doi:10.1002/biot.201600170 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
Isah, M. B., Tajuddeen, N., Umar, M. I., Alhafiz, Z. A., Mohammed, A., & Ibrahim, M. A. (2018) · Studies in natural products chemistry · doi:10.1016/b978-0-444-64179-3.00007-4 · Cited by 47 · see citing works
Industrially Relevant Enzyme Cascades for Drug Synthesis and Their Ecological Assessment
Siedentop, R., & Rosenthal, K. (2022) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences · doi:10.3390/ijms23073605 · Cited by 37 · see citing works
“However, the semisynthetic artemisinin was still more expensive than agricultural artemisinin leading to the sale of the production plant to Huvepharma [42,43].”
BackgroundOptimising Terpene Synthesis with Flow Biocatalysis
Tang, X., Allemann, R. K., & Wirth, T. (2016) · European Journal of Organic Chemistry · doi:10.1002/ejoc.201601388 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Concise synthesis of artemisinin from a farnesyl diphosphate analogue
Tang, X., Demiray, M., Wirth, T., & Allemann, R. K. (2017) · Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry · doi:10.1016/j.bmc.2017.03.068 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
Plant-based engineering for production of high-valued natural products
Sirirungruang, S., Markel, K., & Shih, P. M. (2022) · Natural Product Reports · doi:10.1039/d2np00017b · Cited by 34 · see citing works
Lv, Z., Wang, Y., Liu, Y., Peng, B., Zhang, L., Tang, K., & Chen, W. (2019) · Frontiers in Plant Science · doi:10.3389/fpls.2019.00409 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
“Because the price of artemisinin is fluctuating, the microbial deriving artemisinin may supplement the market but not replace agricultural production (Peplow, 2016).”
BackgroundMa, D., Li, G., Alejos-González, F., Zhu, Y., Xue, Z. H., Wang, A., Zhang, H., Li, X., Ye, H., Wang, H., et al. (2017) · The Plant Journal · doi:10.1111/tpj.13583 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
“…acid coupled with the semi-synthesis of artemisinin has led to the industrial-scale production of these compounds to supplement ACT (Ro et al., 2006; Teoh et al., 2006; Paddon et al., 2013; Turconi et al., 2014), although the cost of this synthetic technology remains to be improved (Peplow, 2016).”
BackgroundBiochemical and Metabolic Insights into Hyoscyamine Dehydrogenase
Qiu, F., Yan, Y., Zeng, J., et al. (2021) · ACS Catalysis · doi:10.1021/acscatal.0c04667 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Societal and Ethical Issues in Industrial Biotechnology
Asveld, L., Osseweijer, P., & Posada, J. A. (2019) · Advances in biochemical engineering, biotechnology · doi:10.1007/10_2019_100 · Cited by 31 · see citing works
“As it turned out, the supply of artemisinin has indeed been volatile over the years; however, the availability of SSA does not seem to have had a big impact on that, although it does appear to have helped stabilise the prices [5].”
BackgroundSingh, D., McPhee, D. J., Paddon, C. J., Cherry, J. R., Maurya, G., Mahale, G., Patel, Y., Kumar, N., Singh, S. C., Sharma, B. A., et al. (2017) · Organic Process Research & Development · doi:10.1021/acs.oprd.6b00414 · Cited by 31 · see citing works
Biosynthesis of plant-specific alkaloids tetrahydroprotoberberines in engineered Escherichia coli
Zhao, W., Liu, M., Shen, C., et al. (2021) · Green Chemistry · doi:10.1039/d1gc01670a · Cited by 29 · see citing works
Shen, Q., Huang, H., Xie, L., Hao, X., Kayani, S., Liu, H., Qin, W. D., Chen, T., Pan, Q., Pin, L., et al. (2022) · Frontiers in Plant Science · doi:10.3389/fpls.2022.885622 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
“Despite the great achievement in producing artemisinin in microbes via semisynthetic synthesis (Ro et al., 2006; Paddon et al., 2013), the A. annua plant is still the most important resource for artemisinin (Peplow, 2016).”
BackgroundHassani, D., Taheri, A., Fu, X., Qin, W. D., Liu, H., Ma, Y., & Tang, K. (2023) · Frontiers in Plant Science · doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1118082 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
“(Willcox, 2009; Peplow, 2016) In this study, we overexpressed the artemisinin mainstream enzyme-coding genes to reduce substrate flux to side branches and increase artemisinin production.”
BackgroundShen, Q., Huang, H., Zhao, Y., Xie, L., He, Q., Zhong, Y., Wang, Y., Wang, Y., & Tang, K. (2019) · Frontiers in Plant Science · doi:10.3389/fpls.2019.01294 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
“Despite the considerable progresses which have been achieved in producing artemisinin in microbes via semisynthetic synthesis (Ro et al., 2006; Paddon et al., 2013), A. annua is still the main resource for artemisinin (Peplow, 2016).”
BackgroundEngineering Saccharomyces cerevisiae for medical applications
Maneira, C., Chamas, A., & Lackner, G. (2025) · Microbial Cell Factories · doi:10.1186/s12934-024-02625-5 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
“Nevertheless, the SSA faced greatket resistance—mostly due to the drop in prices of the naturally derived product and the withdrawal of important supporting grants for the project [114, 115].”
Nabi, N., Singh, S. K., & Saffeullah, P. (2023) · Phytochemistry · doi:10.1016/j.phytochem.2023.113798 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
Artemisinin production strategies for industrial scale: Current progress and future directions
Qamar, F., Ashrafi, K., Singh, A., Dash, P. K., & Abdin, M. Z. (2024) · Industrial Crops and Products · doi:10.1016/j.indcrop.2024.118937 · Cited by 24 · see citing works
Paolis, A. D., Caretto, S., Quarta, A., Sansebastiano, G. P. D., Sbrocca, I., Mita, G., & Frugis, G. (2020) · Plants · doi:10.3390/plants9121669 · Cited by 24 · see citing works
“Nevertheless, even today Artemisia annua plants are the main valuable source of artemisinin [27], thus elucidating the transcriptional regulatory networks of artemisinin biosynthesis may be very helpful to the goal of achieving highly producing plants.”
BackgroundFerreira, J. F. S., Benedito, V. A., Sandhu, D., Marchese, J. A., & Liu, S. (2018) · Frontiers in Plant Science · doi:10.3389/fpls.2018.01096 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
“Although baker’s yeast produced 25 g of AA per liter of culture (Paddon et al., 2013), derivatization of AA to ART is further needed, making the process economically unfeasible compared to plant-based ART (Peplow, 2016).”
BackgroundA modular microfluidic bioreactor to investigate plant cell–cell interactions
Finkbeiner, T., Manz, C., Raorane, M. L., et al. (2021) · PROTOPLASMA · doi:10.1007/s00709-021-01650-0 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
“For instance, to produce the anti-Malaria compound artemisinin in plants turned out to be cheaper than heterologous systems (Peplow 2016).”
BackgroundDynamic Cell Programming with Quorum Sensing-Controlled CRISPRi Circuit
Liu, Y., Chen, J., Crisante, D. A., Lopez, J. M. J., & Mahadevan, R. (2020) · ACS Synthetic Biology · doi:10.1021/acssynbio.0c00148 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Modular co-culture engineering of Yarrowia lipolytica for amorphadiene biosynthesis
Marsafari, M., Azi, F., Dou, S., & Xu, P. (2022) · Microbial Cell Factories · doi:10.1186/s12934-022-02010-0 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
“However, their attempts could not meet the increasing demand for artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) and amorphadiene/artemisinin is not yet commercially available [21].”
BackgroundLi, Y., Qin, W., Liu, H., Chen, T., Yan, X., He, W., Peng, B., Shao, J., Fu, X., Li, L., et al. (2023) · Horticulture Research · doi:10.1093/hr/uhad055 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
“annua is low (1–10 mg/g dry weight), leading to its erratic supply and price fluctuations [1].”
BackgroundEngineering biosynthesis of high-value compounds in photosynthetic organisms
O’Neill, E. C., & Kelly, S. L. (2016) · Critical Reviews in Biotechnology · doi:10.1080/07388551.2016.1237467 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
“[100] Currently, artemisinic acid is obtained from the native producer, Artemisia annua, and yeast engineered to synthesize this compound are not commercially viable, despite significant investment by Sanofi.[101] It will be interesting to see whether metabolic engineering could increase the production within Artemisi…”
BackgroundEffiziente chemoenzymatische Synthese von Dihydroartemisinaldehyd
Demiray, M., Tang, X., Wirth, T., Faraldos, J. A., & Allemann, R. K. (2017) · Angewandte Chemie · doi:10.1002/ange.201609557 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
Silencing amorpha-4,11-diene synthase Genes in Artemisia annua Leads to FPP Accumulation
Catania, T. M., Branigan, C. A., Stawniak, N., Hodson, J., Harvey, D., Larson, T. R., Czechowski, T., & Graham, I. A. (2018) · Frontiers in Plant Science · doi:10.3389/fpls.2018.00547 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
“annua as the sole source of artemisinin, demands for the drug have influenced farmers on whether to grow the crop or not, leading to large market price fluctuations (highs of $1,100 in 2005 to less than $250 per kilogram in 2007 and again in 2015 (Van Noorden, 2010; Peplow, 2016).”
BackgroundZanetti, A., Chaumont-Olive, P., Schwertz, G., et al. (2020) · Organic Process Research & Development · doi:10.1021/acs.oprd.9b00481 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Phytochemicals and Vitamin D for a Healthy Life and Prevention of Diseases
Santa, K., Watanabe, K., Kumazawa, Y., & Nagaoka, I. (2023) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences · doi:10.3390/ijms241512167 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Bionovelty and ecological restoration
Volpe, J. P., Higgs, E. S., Jeschke, J. M., Barnhill‐Dilling, S. K., Brunk, C. G., Dudney, J. C., Govers, L. L., Hobbs, R. J., Keenleyside, K., Murphy, S. D., et al. (2024) · Restoration Ecology · doi:10.1111/rec.14152 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
“For instance, a shift from sourcing Artemisinin, an antimalarial lactone, from farmed sweet worm-wood ( Artemisia annua ) to yeast fermentation proved unviable since exploitative farming practices remained fi nancially more advantageous than building technical infrastructure (Peplow 2016).”
BackgroundExploiting plant cell culture for natural product formation
Kreis, W. (2019) · Angewandte Botanik · doi:10.5073/jabfq.2019.092.030 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
“So far commercializa- tion of alternative processes, including a very promising yeast process generating semi-synthetic artemisinin, has not been successful (PePloW, 2016).”
BackgroundCzechowski, T., Weathers, P. J., Brodelius, P. E., et al. (2020) · Frontiers in Plant Science · doi:10.3389/fpls.2020.594565 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
“…too expensive to allow the semi-synthetic route to compete with plant-based production, where both enzymatic and non-enzymatic steps are conducted in glandular secretory trichomes, which are specialized 10-cell structures found on the surface of the leaf, stems and flower buds (Peplow, 2016).”
BackgroundLange, B. M. (2017) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-67903-7_8 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Engineering yeast for industrial-level production of the antimalarial drug artemisinin
Smith, A. B., & Chekan, J. R. (2022) · Trends in biotechnology · doi:10.1016/j.tibtech.2022.12.007 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Fernández, M. A. G., de Oliveira, M. N., Zanetti, A., et al. (2021) · Organic Letters · doi:10.1021/acs.orglett.1c00636 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Dou, J., & Weathers, P. J. (2022) · Plant Cell Tissue and Organ Culture (PCTOC) · doi:10.1007/s11240-022-02287-4 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
“Unfortunately, those microbial production systems along with other market forces were barely able to compete with plantation production (Peplow 2016).”
BackgroundMohammad, Hurrah, I. M., Kumar, A., & Abbas, N. (2023) · Physiologia Plantarum · doi:10.1111/ppl.13849 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Synthetic biology: An emerging field for developing economies
Kiran, B. R., Prasad, M. N. V., & Mohan, S. V. (2024) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-443-16120-9.00013-3 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Zhang, C., & Too, H. (2019) · Current Medicinal Chemistry · doi:10.2174/0929867324666170912095755 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Combining microbial and chemical syntheses for the production of complex natural products
ZHANG, H., & Tang, X. (2022) · Chinese Journal of Natural Medicines · doi:10.1016/s1875-5364(22)60191-2 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Perassolo, M., Cardillo, A. B., Busto, V. D., Giulietti, A. M., & Talou, J. R. (2018) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-78274-4_4 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Strengthening the genetic diversity conservation narrative in Indonesia: challenges and prospects
Ragamustari, S. K., & Sukara, E. (2019) · Biodiversity and Conservation · doi:10.1007/s10531-019-01749-0 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
“Artemisinin, an anti‑malarial compound originally found in Artemisia annua, is already technically viable to produce using synthetic biology (Breitling and Takano 2015), but can‑ not be produced at a sufficiently competitive price to enter the market (Peplow 2016).”
BackgroundLi, Y., Chen, T., Liu, H., Qin, W. D., Yan, X., Wu-Zhang, K., Peng, B., Zhang, Y., Yao, X., Fu, X., et al. (2022) · Journal of Plant Physiology · doi:10.1016/j.jplph.2022.153712 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
An oxidatively stressful situation: a case of Artemisia annua L.
Kam, M. Y. Y., & Yap, W. S. P. (2020) · Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering Reviews · doi:10.1080/02648725.2020.1749818 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Zhang, N., Yang, H., Han, T., Kim, H. S., & Marcelis, L. F. M. (2023) · Frontiers in Plant Science · doi:10.3389/fpls.2022.1099713 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
“However, the semi-synthetic approach via yeast is only able to produce artemisinic acid, which needs to be further converted to artemisinin, resulting in a high cost for producing artemisinin via yeast (Peplow, 2016).”
BackgroundAre the Ethics of Synthetic Biology Fit for Purpose? A Case Study of Artemisinin [Point of View]
Dalziell, J., & Rogers, W. (2022) · Proceedings of the IEEE · doi:10.1109/jproc.2022.3157825 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Cloning and analyzing of chalcone isomerase gene (AaCHI) from Artemisia annua
Ma, J., Fu, X., Zhang, T., Qian, H., & Zhao, J. (2019) · Plant Cell Tissue and Organ Culture (PCTOC) · doi:10.1007/s11240-018-01549-4 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Emerging and Enabling Technologies in Biodefense
Berger, K. M. (2019) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-03053-7_13 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
“, synthetic artemisinin for malaria treatment [50], chemicals”
BackgroundPatil, V., Santos, C. N. S., Ajikumar, P. K., Sarria, S., & Takors, R. (2020) · Biotechnology and Bioengineering · doi:10.1002/bit.27655 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
“However, at ~$400/kg, the price of semisynthetic artemisinin was still more than double that of its agricultural counterpart, and the process was terminated after just a year of production (Peplow, 2016).”
BackgroundSynthetic Biology - Mapping the Patent LandscapePreprint
Oldham, P. D., & Hall, S. (2018) · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · doi:10.1101/483826 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
“However, in 2016 it was reported that Sanofi would not proceed with production and was selling its production facility [73].”
BackgroundVashisth, D., & Mishra, S. (2025) · 3 Biotech · doi:10.1007/s13205-025-04332-3 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
“None of the methods has been able to completely replace the agricultural production of A. annua until now (Peplow 2016; Kung et al. 2018) .”
History, Current State, and Emerging Applications of Industrial Biotechnology
Schürrle, K. (2018) · Advances in biochemical engineering, biotechnology · doi:10.1007/10_2018_81 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Synthetic Biology as a Bridge to Integration of Bio Objects into Internet of Things
Gotovtsev, P. M., & Konova, I. A. (2019) · International Conference on Sensing and Instrumentation in IoT Era (ISSI) · doi:10.1109/issi47111.2019.9043737 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Synthetic Biology, GMO, and Risk: What Is New, and What Is Different?
Trump, B. D. (2019) · Risk, systems and decisions · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-27264-7_5 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Palladium-Catalyzed Regioselective Allylic Oxidation of Amorphadiene, a Precursor of Artemisinin
Zanetti, A., Schwertz, G., de Oliveira, M. N., Fernández, M. A. G., Amara, Z., & Cossy, J. (2021) · The Journal of Organic Chemistry · doi:10.1021/acs.joc.1c00653 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
What Feminist Bioethics Can Bring to Synthetic Biology
Rogers, W., & Dalziell, J. (2023) · International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics · doi:10.3138/ijfab-2023-0004 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
“Nonetheless, the development of SSA is widely cited as a synbio success story (Paddon and Keasling 2014; Peplow 2016).”
BackgroundFernández‐Niño, M., & Islam, Z.-U. (2017) · Salud UIS · doi:10.18273/revsal.v49n1-2017009 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Synthesis of natural products and their derivatives using dynamic crystallization
Sato, T. (2024) · Chemistry Letters · doi:10.1093/chemle/upae244 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Current state, strategies, and perspectives in enhancing artemisinin production
Zakariya, A. M., Saiman, M. Z., Simonsen, H. T., & Ikram, N. K. K. (2023) · Phytochemistry Reviews · doi:10.1007/s11101-023-09897-6 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
“However, the non-enzymatic photo-chemical conversion of artemisinic acid to artemisinin is not cost efficient to allow semi-synthetic production to compete with plant base production (Peplow 2016).”
Chen, J., Wu, W., Ding, X., Zhang, D., Dai, C., Pan, H., Shi, P., Wu, C., Zhang, J., Zhao, J., et al. (2023) · BMC Genomics · doi:10.1186/s12864-023-09786-4 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
“Though semi-synthetic artemisinin has been developed [6, 7], low yield and high cost make large-scale industrial applications unavailable [8].”
BackgroundThe bright side of synthetic biology and Crispr
Ouagrham-Gormley, S. B., & Fye-Marnien, S. (2018) · Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists · doi:10.1080/00963402.2017.1413056 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
“can take more than a year, which does not allow production to adjust quickly to demand (Peplow 2013; Peplow 2016).”
BackgroundNikolayevskiy, H., Tun, M. K. M., Rablen, P. R., et al. (2017) · Chemical Science · doi:10.1039/c7sc01127j · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Himmelberger, J. A., Cole, K., & Dowling, D. (2017) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-809270-5.00019-4 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Zhu, J., Chen, C., Ding, L., Xu, L. S., Luo, Y., Li, C., Guo, Z., Song, L., Wang, H., & Yu, R. (2020) · Biochemical Engineering Journal · doi:10.1016/j.bej.2020.107633 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
- Authors
- Peplow, M.
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2016-02-23
- Volume
- 530
- Issue
- 7591
- Pages
- 389-390
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- OpenAlex
- W2284539118
- Cited by
- 143
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 23 · 2016: 6
- Type
- other
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Microbial Metabolic Engineering and Bioproduction
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Biotechnology and Related Fields
- Keywords
- malaria drugs, recombinant yeast, synthetic biology, drug production, commercialization, market resistance
- MeSH terms
- Antimalarials, Humans, Malaria, Drug Costs, Crops, Agricultural, Artemisia annua, Artemisinins, Synthetic Biology
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
