SAN FRANCISCO -- Genetics researchers in California say they're close to refining a new biotechnology recipe of an ancient Chinese remedy for malaria. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, hope to inexpensively manufacture a malaria fighter called artemisinin in E. coli bacteria, rather than finely grinding the wormwood plant as Chinese herbalists do.

Each year, 300 million to 500 million new cases of the mosquito-borne disease are diagnosed, according to the World Health Organization, and many of those who become ill -- children are especially vulnerable -- can't afford the drugs to treat it. Drug resistance is also a growing problem.

If the Berkeley technique is perfected, the researchers said their work could yield low-cost drugs produced in abundance.

The scientists also have high hopes that their multi-species gene splicing technique, which produces a family of chemicals called isoprenoids, could some day be used to make a wide range of drugs and food additives. Companies now create those chemicals in laboratories or extract them from plants -- both time-consuming and expensive processes.

Led by Berkeley chemical engineering professor Jay Keasling, the researchers spliced chemical-producing genes from the wormwood plant and yeast genes into E. coli and coaxed the production of a chemical precursor to artemisinin.