항암제도 ‘양식’한다
━ A MAYAPPLE A DAY Mass-producing a rare, endangered plant’s cancer-fighting chemicals through genetic mastery.An endangered species with a habitat as high as 2.5 miles above sea level, the Himalayan mayapple is not an easy plant to get hold of. Yet humans keep trying, because the poisonous plant naturally produces podophyllotoxin, a preliminary compound in etoposide—classed as an essential medicine by the World Health Organization (WHO)—which is used to treat a ran