Many of the plant-derived compounds used in chemotherapies are currently produced by semisynthesis, which results in limited supplies at exorbitant market prices. However, the synthetic biology era, which began ca 15 years ago, has progressively yielded encouraging advances by using engineered microbes for the practical production of cheaper plant anticancer drugs.

中文翻译：

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迈向植物衍生抗癌药物的微生物生产。

目前，化学疗法中使用的许多植物来源的化合物都是通过半合成生产的，这导致市场价格过高时供应有限。然而，大约15年前开始的合成生物学时代已经通过使用工程微生物实际生产廉价的植物抗癌药物而逐步取得了令人鼓舞的进展。