If it seems like more children are wearing glasses, you’re not imagining it. By 2050, scientists project about 50% of the world’s population will be nearsighted. As families and clinicians look for ways to slow that trend, a team led by Southern Illinois University Carbondale researchers has developed a cleaner, lower-cost process to make 7-methylxanthine (7-MX), an oral drug used in Europe to treat childhood myopia.
At the heart of this study is a significant innovation: a common microbe engineered to turn caffeine from spent tea leaves and coffee grounds into the medicine with near-perfect precision — for a tiny fraction of the current cost, less than 35 cents per gram compared to $700 per gram. The team’s findings were published month in the high-impact peer-reviewed journal Green Chemistry, published by the Royal Society of Chemistry, and featured on its back cover.
“We’ve developed a green manufacturing platform that could one day help treat millions of children,” said Lahiru N. Jayakody, associate professor in SIU’s School of Biological Sciences and the Fermentation Science Institute, where the study was launched. “Under current conditions, we estimate the daily dose of 7-MX could be produced for well under a dollar. Our goal is to make this therapy widely accessible as clinical adoption grows.” The process is “green,” Jayakody explains, because it starts with byproducts (glycerol from biodiesel and recoverable caffeine from spent tea and coffee) and replaces harsh chemical steps with a biological conversion that makes almost no waste. After fermentation, the drug crystallizes simply by cooling, which cuts down on solvent use and waste disposal. Taken together, those choices point to a cleaner, more circular supply chain — and a smaller environmental tab per dose.
Creating tiny microbe factories
The study was conceptualized and designed by Jayakody while SIU Ph.D. candidate Bhagya Jayantha led the experimental design and execution. Collaborators at the University of Alabama ran biochemical assays on feedback inhibition, and a Penn State researcher led the techno-economic and life-cycle analyses. The team engineered the bacterium Pseudomonas putida — a common, nonpathogenic soil microbe widely used in biotech — so it works like a tiny factory. Think of it as a careful craftsperson: it takes in caffeine and trims it to exactly 7-MX, then stops, instead of making a messy mix of byproducts. To keep production steady, the team fed caffeine gradually (a fed-batch strategy, like topping off a gas tank as you drive) and tuned the cell’s internal metabolic balance so the chemistry runs cleanly.
“What excites me is how the same engineering playbook can turn everyday leftovers into something that helps people,” Jayantha said. His graduate research — supported by a grant from the Environmental Research & Education Foundation (EREF) — aims to create a circular economy that reduces waste and reliance on conventional plastics. “We’re showing that biology can deliver a valuable pharmaceutical ingredient with precision, using inexpensive inputs and far less waste.”
Myopia that worsens in childhood raises the risk of problems later in life, including retinal detachment and glaucoma. While 7-MX isn’t a cure — and medical practice varies by country — clinicians in parts of Europe use it to help slow progression alongside lenses and lifestyle measures. If the use of 7-MX expands, a clean, affordable, scalable supply of the active ingredient will matter to families and health systems.
“This is very similar to the insulin story in industrial biotechnology,” Jayakody said. “Once biology proved it could make a complex medicine more cleanly and at scale, access and affordability changed for the better.”
From lab to market: what comes next
The 7-MX project is part of SIU’s wider push to build a circular bioeconomy from food and beverage byproducts. A related effort led by Jayantha aims to upcycle food waste into biodegradable packaging. In parallel, the myopia-drug work shows that caffeine recovered from waste tea and coffee sources can feed the same microbial platform — turning discarded brew waste into a health care ingredient.
Industry partners are helping push these efforts forward. The study is part of Green Tea to Green Plastic, a collaboration supported by Green Core LLC (Japan) and ITO EN (North America) INC through the Japanese beverage company ITO EN, LTD. Long-term collaborative goals include development of biodegradable packaging and other sustainable materials.
“We’re extremely proud of this collaboration,” said Yosuke Jay O. Honjo, president and CEO of ITO EN (North America) INC. “It shows how industry and academic partners can move faster together — taking what many view as waste and turning it into new value. Projects like this support our sustainability roadmap by exploring practical ways to create value from byproducts and reduce environmental impact. Consumers may not see the science, but they feel the results: cleaner processes, better products and less waste.”
Building on these industry ties, the SIU team and collaborators are now focused on the bridge from research to real-world use. Next steps include refining solid and staged feeding strategies, cutting water and energy use, and validating solvent-free product recovery to keep the footprint small. The group is also testing the platform with larger volumes of tea and coffee waste while maintaining high selectivity.
Stepping back, these moves push the project beyond one process to a broader mission: building capacity for sustainable biomanufacturing at scale. In practice, that means talent development. SIU’s Fermentation Science Institute — working with the Gower Translational Research Center, the BioLaunch Lab and external partners — prepares students from strain design to scale-up and technology transfer. “Our students learn the full path,” Jayakody said. “Design the biology, run the process, analyze cost and footprint, and align with an industrial partner. That’s how you prepare the workforce that will build the next generation of sustainable biomanufacturing.”
Jayantha said that broader lens is what drew him to his current research focus. “I’m motivated by the idea that yesterday’s leftovers can become tomorrow’s solutions — medicines, materials and more,” he said. “Caffeine to 7-MX is one example, but the same toolkit can unlock value across many waste streams.”
