Cancer cures don’t grow on trees! Or do they?
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
To Celtic Druids, the yew tree symbolized death and resurrection. Today, it could mean… anti-cancer medication!
Why? Yew tree needles contain the chemical Baccatin Three. If researchers could synthesize it, they could make cancer drugs more cheaply. The hurdle is learning which genes are required.
Enter Conor McClune and team at Stanford. They invented an experimental method to quickly test yew needles in OVER one hundred conditions! It found the unknown genes by finding similar patterns to known Baccatin Three genes. Then a model plant with all the genes produced Baccatin Three at similar levels to nature!
Whoo! Go release your inner druid – and hug a Yew tree!
Reference: McClune, C. J., Liu, J. C.-T., Wick, C., De La Peña, R., Lange, B. M., Fordyce, P. M., & Sattely, E. S. (2025). Discovery of FoTO1 and Taxol genes enables biosynthesis of baccatin III. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09090-z