The 'chemputer' that could print out any drug

The 'chemputer' that could print out any drug

www.guardian.co.uk

...the notion of creating downloadable chemistry, with the ultimate aim of allowing people to "print" their own pharmaceuticals at home. Cronin's latest TED talk asked the question: "Could we make a really cool universal chemistry set? Can we 'app' chemistry?" "Basically," he tells me, in his office at the university, with half a grin, "what Apple did for music, I'd like to do for the discovery and distribution of prescription drugs."

(visit the link for the full news article)

ATS has seen discussion before about 3D printing technology, which allows a user to transmit blueprint-like information and "print out" physical objects at a distance. Now in a new wrinkle, this technology is being applied to chemistry.

The new tech is still at the conception stage, but if it is developed in line with Professor Lee Cronin's dreams, it might become possible to use a kind of "universal chemistry set" to transmit medicines, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals at a distance.

This has all kinds of implications, both for healthcare and really for any field that uses chemicals, ultimately. It has legal implications (will pharmaceuticals be pirataed and sold illegally over the net?) and economic implications (will this put pharmacies out of business and change the face of modern medicine?). As with all new tech, it opens the doors to both benefits and potential harm. In the same way that the Internet has increased the flow of information, will this kind of tech change the face of health, medicine, and science in general?

www.guardian.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by silent thunder


in all honesty, I'd be surprised if it was ever available to the public for use at home - I'm not an addict or anything like that, but even my first thought went to using it for a nefarious purpose (shhhh)

Maybe something they can put into a pharmacy though.... I think thats possible....It would definitely be beneficial. I can't count how many times they were either out of something I was perscribed, or only had a limited amount and I had to pick up the rest later. Its inconvenient at best. Be nice to have it always available.

Hmm.. I could see great things happening with this. A new era of medical ability and all kinds of new options for people everywhere.

I could also see the stereotypical Archie Bunker type getting into a big fight with the little Mrs and ordering up half a cup of hemlock, sweet, warm.

"Oh Hoooneeeey! I have some warm tea for ya!..."

And...thus ends the home based Rx dispenser. Err... It'd only take one.

Oh great! So now instead of having to drive 30 minutes to go fill out a prescription, people will just be able to "download" it. This sure won't help us fight the obesity epidemic

Wait a minute....... How would pharma make money off this? Are they supplying the print cartridges?

Well, anyone who knows even a little bit of organic chemistry can see this is very unlikely in any real terms.

You can't just throw a bunch of precursors together and get a magic result. It takes a lot of careful precise amounts of stuff and things and bits and exact temperatures, bits, things and stuff.

It's like saying you can print out a black forest cake or a pavlova. Hell I'd even be happy if there was a way to use a computer to print out coffee in the morning, I'd not have to grind my beans in the turkish grinder.

So nah, you won't be printing out opiates, or even paracetamol... If anything it'd be a large machine, computer controlled and still take hours or days to make something... They'd just be removing the human interaction.

Getting the precursors and reagents etc, would still get the feds on your back, the law up yer bum and a judge down your throat.


-- having read the article better, it's almost as if he's talking about a replicator. Using carbon and a machine to build things at the molecular level. I like the way he thinks, but I still see it as a long haul to get even close to being able to create a basic compound with a 'printer'. Let alone a viable drug.

Never say never though, I suppose!

Originally posted by mainidh
...It's like saying you can print out a black forest cake or a pavlova. Hell I'd even be happy if there was a way to use a computer to print out coffee in the morning, I'd not have to grind my beans in the turkish grinder...

Perhaps not as far-fetched as one might think:

Using 3D printers, the New York City-based French Culinary Institute, teamed with the computational synthesis laboratory at Cornell University, have constructed edible objects using pureed foods in place of ink.
What did they make?
■Miniature space shuttles made of ground scallops and cheese
■Interesting crispy corn snacks made from squiggly patterns
■Everything from chocolate, cheese and hummus to scallops, turkey, and celery

Jeffrey Lipton, a researcher and graduate student at the lab said, “It lets you do complex geometries with food that you could never do by hand....

Source:
techcrunch.com...

3D printers ......... chem printers ..... "wireless technology"......... i`m officially finnished with this wage slave system , 40 years ago we didnt know our *rse from adam , but now we`re living like the jetsons ? ... i`m out , i cant watch these people play with MORE useless sh** .

reply to post by silent thunder


That's a different concept though, using a puree. With things like coffee, the essential oils are volatile, and evaporate quickly, leaving you a rather bland coffee, so you can't really use pre-grinded coffee (if you're a coffee freak!) because it loses flavour.

But as they say necessity is the mother of invention! And unfortunately big pharma is the mother-in-law of reality.

Have to keep an eye on this to see what they come up with, I don't see it as a way to print out your own meds, but I do see it as the next step in automation at the chemist level!

Originally posted by mainidh
reply to post by silent thunder

 

That's a different concept though, using a puree. With things like coffee, the essential oils are volatile, and evaporate quickly, leaving you a rather bland coffee, so you can't really use pre-grinded coffee (if you're a coffee freak!) because it loses flavour.

But as they say necessity is the mother of invention! And unfortunately big pharma is the mother-in-law of reality.

Have to keep an eye on this to see what they come up with, I don't see it as a way to print out your own meds, but I do see it as the next step in automation at the chemist level!

I wish i could be as close minded as you.

reply to post by silent thunder


This is beginning to sound like the beginnings of 'Teleportation' devices....

First 3D Printing and now possible printing of drugs??

Surely these are the first steps in 'Teleportation'... I wonder if Scientists have looked at it this way and maybe in the Future we will be able to "Print" ourselves off to any destination!!

Ha! Ha!

May sound absurd but when you look at it it's just reading Code and Printing it out.... so 'CODE' is the 'DNA' of Computer language.... 'DNA' is the 'CODE' of the Human System....

Could they make a red pill to wake up the whole damned population?
Everything else would be worthless by comparison.

reply to post by TruthxIsxInxThexMist


What does 3d printing have to do with teleportation? All the printer does is either carve or build an object from a formula. Nothing is being teleportated.

reply to post by RealSpoke


data is being teleported to the printer via usb leads... the printer cant print anything without having data of something to print right?