Digitising chemistry leads to 3D-printed drug factories

One of the barriers for the use of many drugs in remote locations is the difficulty of making them. The active ingredients for drugs are complex molecules, and their manufacture is equally complicated; as well as sometimes being hazardous. The Glasgow team, led by Prof Leroy (Lee) Cronin, claims that its discovery might help to change that.

The Cronin Group has for some years been developing what it calls “reactionware”: vessels containing catalysts and other materials that are designed to produce specific chemicals when simple, readily-available starting materials are added. These vessels are designed to be made by 3D printing on low-cost equipment, from cheap materials like polyethylene.

In their latest research, published in Science, the group describes the translation of bench-scale synthesis of drugs ingredients into a digital code which, in turn, “guides production of a three-dimensional printed device that encloses the entire synthetic route internally via simple operations.”