3 ms·

3D printing != molecular synthesis. This may be an issue, say, next century, but we're nowhere close to it. If 3D printing an iPhone is going to the moon, 3D "p

3D printing != molecular synthesis. This may be an issue, say, next century, but we're nowhere close to it. If 3D printing an iPhone is going to the moon, 3D "printing" molecules from elemental sources is like going to Alpha Centauri.

pash 14y ago
The idea is not to print molecules. Instead, you print reagents into a matrix designed to guide a reaction. The reactor vessel itself becomes a template for synthesis. There's a team at the University of Glasgow working on this. They published in Nature Chemistry last year [0] and garnered a lot of attention in the popular science media. 0. http://www.nature.com/nchem/journal/v4/n5/full/nchem.1313.html http://www.nature.com/nchem/journal/v4/n5/full/nchem.1313.ht...
- spartango 14y ago
  Unfortunately, for much of synthetic chemistry, positioning a bunch of reagents in a matrix is not sufficient to produce a target molecule. And even if you do manage to get to your target through a relatively trivial process, isolating it from other compounds is an enormous challenge. Reactionware has traditionally made this problem worse, as solvents and reagents tend to interact with the containers and contaminate the synthesis. There's a reason that most chemistry is still done in glass. Further, the reagents and catalysts involved in drug synthesis vary wildly, so it will take a substantial amount of shopping to even get the raw materials you would need to setup a viable reaction. While this is a cool setup, it's best not to overstate it's capabilities.
lifeisstillgood 14y ago
I did not mean 3D printing (so why did I say it? Iphone, lack of time, stupidity take your pick) I am making some assumptions: That pharma-drugs are manufactured almost entirely by machines, that there are several classes of process that use the same intermediate steps (keep at this temperature, grind evenly to ensure stable emulsion etc etc) and that those steps could or perhaps even are, amenable to being joined - ie you could pass product into one shiny metal machine, out into anohter and another till presto you have the final product. And that these modularised mini manufactureing machines will be useful for commerical purposes - and subsequently for pro/amateur use - and I could concievably brew up my own MS cocktail at home for less than the price tag of a yearly supply.
- spartango 14y ago
  Except for the part where the building blocks are not common between drugs, and the protocols to assemble them are neither uniform nor few in number. Tooling up to synthesize a drug can draw on thousands of different techniques and tools, even when working with small quantities. Amateur drug synthesis does occur (particularly for recreational drugs), but it's neither safe, nor efficient, nor flexible. It will take a new platform technology to allow for distributed drug synthesis, and a likely a better understanding of those drugs to get there.

pash 14y ago

The idea is not to print molecules. Instead, you print reagents into a matrix designed to guide a reaction. The reactor vessel itself becomes a template for synthesis. There's a team at the University of Glasgow working on this. They published in Nature Chemistry last year [0] and garnered a lot of attention in the popular science media. 0. http://www.nature.com/nchem/journal/v4/n5/full/nchem.1313.html http://www.nature.com/nchem/journal/v4/n5/full/nchem.1313.ht...

spartango 14y ago
Unfortunately, for much of synthetic chemistry, positioning a bunch of reagents in a matrix is not sufficient to produce a target molecule. And even if you do manage to get to your target through a relatively trivial process, isolating it from other compounds is an enormous challenge. Reactionware has traditionally made this problem worse, as solvents and reagents tend to interact with the containers and contaminate the synthesis. There's a reason that most chemistry is still done in glass. Further, the reagents and catalysts involved in drug synthesis vary wildly, so it will take a substantial amount of shopping to even get the raw materials you would need to setup a viable reaction. While this is a cool setup, it's best not to overstate it's capabilities.

lifeisstillgood 14y ago

I did not mean 3D printing (so why did I say it? Iphone, lack of time, stupidity take your pick) I am making some assumptions: That pharma-drugs are manufactured almost entirely by machines, that there are several classes of process that use the same intermediate steps (keep at this temperature, grind evenly to ensure stable emulsion etc etc) and that those steps could or perhaps even are, amenable to being joined - ie you could pass product into one shiny metal machine, out into anohter and another till presto you have the final product. And that these modularised mini manufactureing machines will be useful for commerical purposes - and subsequently for pro/amateur use - and I could concievably brew up my own MS cocktail at home for less than the price tag of a yearly supply.

spartango 14y ago
Except for the part where the building blocks are not common between drugs, and the protocols to assemble them are neither uniform nor few in number. Tooling up to synthesize a drug can draw on thousands of different techniques and tools, even when working with small quantities. Amateur drug synthesis does occur (particularly for recreational drugs), but it's neither safe, nor efficient, nor flexible. It will take a new platform technology to allow for distributed drug synthesis, and a likely a better understanding of those drugs to get there.