3D Printed Drugs (via REVOLUTION Medicines)
3D printing has fascinated many, with its wide range of uses, including manufacturing
plastic guns,
prosthetics, and even
human organs. Now, it would seem as if those uses might someday include 3D printed drugs—a service that could ensure patients receive the blueprints and materials they need to synthesize pharmaceuticals from the comfort of their own homes.
Professor Lee Cronin, a 3D printing expert, thinks personalized drug technology might be available to the public in
as little as 5 years. But printing organic molecules—notoriously tiny and highly complex things—is something that has made drug synthesis difficult...
until now.
A new paper published in
Science describes a novel "roadmap" to a specialized type 3D printer—called a "molecule making machine"—that simplifies the process; it's described as a "block-by-block way to manufacture molecules." Think of it as a 3D printer that puts together chemical LEGO blocks, which ultimately build molecules, The "blocks" necessary for this kind of 3D printing are already available for purchase.
“The vision for the future is that anyone who needs a specific small molecule can essentially print it out from their computer,” Said Martin Burke, the project's leader, in a
press video.
As the technology's use increases, additional molecular blueprints will be available for download online. This means that researchers (or whoever owns the molecule maker) will be able to use the specialized 3D printer to potentially create whatever molecular compounds they desire—including drugs.
"A 3D printer for molecules could allow us to harness all the creativity, innovation, and outside-the-box thinking that comes when non-experts start to use technology that use to only be in the hands of a select few," Burke went on to say.
So, we ask: 3D printed drugs; a miracle, or a disaster waiting to happen?
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