A team of researchers from the University of Calgary recently used the Canadian Light Source at the University of Saskatchewan to uncover new information about a class of plant enzymes. The group used the CLS to study the yellow horned poppy. Dr. Kenneth Ng of the U of C says the team learned that the enzyme plays an important step in a pathway that makes a bunch of compounds that are currently used in medicines today. Those medicines include painkillers codeine and morphine. Dr. Ng says now that they know how the enzyme works at the molecular level, they can start to change how it works such as making new compounds that could have better properties for treating diseases. Understanding how key enzymes behave can help bioengineers to optimize their drug production and allow researchers to explore new or rare compounds. The University of Calgary team hope the new information will make medicines such as codeine and morphine more accessible and reduce their costs.