New robot system can produce drugs on-demand

'Chemputer' uses downloadable blueprints to make life-saving drugs quickly

medical-drug-health-tablet The system will help medical professionals to quickly produce almost any prescription drug, more affordably and accurately

Scientists in the UK have developed a 3D printer that will allow organic synthesis in a modular robotic system driven by a chemical programming language.

The system will help medical professionals in remote parts of the world to quickly produce almost any prescription drug, more affordably and accurately than ever possible before.

The revolutionary drug production system uses downloadable blueprints capable of performing the operations necessary to complete a synthetic sequence. Those chemical recipes, run on a computer program called 'Chempiler', instruct the Chemputer how to produce molecules on-demand. Chemputer uses raw chemical materials in the liquid form to produce organic chemicals.

"Making recipes for drugs available online, and synthesisable via a compact Chemputer system, could allow medical professionals in remote parts of the world to create life-saving drugs as and when they are required," said Professor Professor Lee Cronin, the University of Glasgow's Regius Chair of Chemistry, who designed and developed the system.

The desktop-sized Chemputer uses a universal code to convert their recipe into a digital code inputting formulaic quantities of chemicals. "This approach is a key step in the digitisation of chemistry, and will allow the universal assembly of complex molecules on demand, democratising the ability to discover and make new molecules using a simple software app and a modular Chemputer," Cronin said.

Recent advances have made scientists capable of producing some chemical compounds at laboratory scale via automated systems. With the new 3D printer for pharmaceuticals, researchers will be able to easily share newly-developed drug molecules for innovative treatments.

The syntheses in the digital format can be published, versioned, and transferred flexibly between platforms with no modification, thereby greatly enhancing reproducibility and reliable access to complex molecules. “The potential applications are enormous, and we're very excited to be leading on this revolutionary new approach to organic chemistry," researchers said.