1,000,000 times faster

New nanoengineering will accelerate the creation of drugs a million times

Georgy Golovanov, Hi-tech+

In the machinations of new drugs and vaccines, pharmacists are studying thousands of molecules. The new technology reduces the development time to nanoseconds, and also reduces the cost of materials and energy. The method, created by scientists in Denmark, allows synthesizing and analyzing over 40,000 molecules in a space smaller than a pinhead.

An interdisciplinary team of scientists from several research centers in Denmark has developed a single-particle combinatorial lipid nanocontainer synthesis based on DNA-mediated fusion (single particle combinatorial lipidic nanocontainer fusion based on DNA mediated fusion, SPARCLD). Simply put, different molecules are mixed with each other using gene nanotechnology in tiny containers similar to soap bubbles, and laboratory technicians can continuously control the composition by changing the reaction conditions — almost in real time, writes Phys.org.

Article by Malle et al. Single-particle combinatorial multiplexed liposome fusion mediated by DNA is published in the journal Nature Chemistry – VM.

Individually, each element of the technology is not new, but so far they have not been combined with each other so effectively, says Nikos Hatzakis from University of Copenhagen.

"The volumes have become so small that the consumption of materials can be compared with using one liter of water and one kilogram of raw materials instead of the contents of all the oceans of the world to test an object with a mass of Mount Everest. This is an unprecedented saving of labor, materials, labor and energy," he said.

The authors of the invention expect to interest pharmaceutical companies and scientific laboratories engaged in the synthesis of large molecules like polymers. A serious advantage of the method is the possibility of its further integration, for example, with the CRISPR gene editing tool or use in the synthesis of RNA for vaccines.

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