But the technology is advancing so rapidly that it may match the efficiency of poppy farming within two to three years, Dr. Smolke added.
An F.B.I. spokesman said the agency was aware of the potential for work like Dr. Smolke’s to be exploited by criminals, but would become concerned only when the technology was advanced enough to be ready for commercial use.
Dr. Smolke’s team inserted 23 genes — bits of DNA from plants, bacteria and even rats — into yeast and coaxed it to produce enzymes that converted sugar in steps into thebaine and hydrocodone. It was “the most complicated chemical synthesis ever engineered in yeast,” she said.
Thebaine can be converted into oxycodone, the pain reliever in OxyContin. Hydrocodone is a pain reliever often paired with acetaminophen in pills like Vicodin.
Kenneth A. Oye, a professor of engineering and political science at M.I.T. who has raised alarms about the dangers of bioengineered opioids, said he was glad that, as a safety measure, Dr. Smolke’s lab had not produced morphine, another opiate that is found in poppies and can be easily refined into heroin.
Thebaine itself is poisonous, he noted. At high doses, it causes deaths from convulsions. Hydrocodone, he added, “doesn’t give you the high that other compounds do.”
In May, Dr. Oye and others wrote a commentary in the journal Nature saying that drug-regulatory agencies were ill-prepared to control an emerging science that might benefit drug smugglers more than legitimate drug makers.
Poppies are crossbred and genetically manipulated to produce higher drug yields. They are legally grown for the pharmaceutical industry in several countries under quotas overseen by the International Narcotics Control Board.