'Rewriting' the way to make natural drug compounds

One way to solve problems of synthesis of natural compounds is to figure out how an organism solves the problem itself, and then modify it for a particular use, experts say. "In terms of drug discovery, there remains a large gap between finding a compound that's a potential drug and bringing it to market," a researcher says, "so we've been looking at synthetic biology -- how to write and rewrite genetic code to produce these compounds for us."