PROCESS CHEMISTRY
Mini factory made drugs on demand Continuous-flow system went from synthesis to dosage forms in hours Drug manufacturers typically produce drugs in batches in large factories. But a new trend is developing in the pharmaceutical industry to reduce infrastructure costs by using small continuous-flow systems to make drug doses on demand. In an innovative example this year, Timothy F. Jamison, Klavs F. Jensen, and Allan S. Myerson of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and coworkers designed a refrigerator-sized mini factory to make clinic-ready drug formulations (Science 2016, DOI: 10.1126/science.aaf1337). The system combines an upstream chemical reactor unit with downstream precipitation, filtration, recrystallization, and formulation components. It also has chemical analysis and computational modules for quality control and process evaluation. The mini factory, which can make hundreds or
The upstream reactor side of the improved version of MIT’s pharmacyon-demand system (left) couples with the downstream isolation and purification side (right), which includes precipitation, filtration, dissolution, crystallization, and formulation units.
even thousands of doses of a drug in about two hours, could be particularly useful for making medicines with a short shelf life; for use by small groups of patients, small companies, or developing countries; and for addressing sudden public health needs. When the MIT mini factory was first disclosed in April, a researcher commented that most process chemists would not have
believed it was possible to embody such broad capability in such a small package. But since then, the MIT group has reduced the system’s size further—by 40%—by developing smaller and more easily loadable reactor components and downsizing the pumps, among other changes. The latest version can also produce more-complex drug molecules than before. On Demand Pharmaceuticals is working toward commercializing the patented technology.—STU BORMAN
POLYMERS
World’s first PET-munching microbe discovered
CREDIT: MIT (MINI FACTORY); SCIENCE (MICROGRAPH)
Bacterium’s enzymes break popular plastic’s bonds to form recyclable monomers Sludge from a plastic recycling plant may to Institute of Technology’s Kohei Oda, strong ester bonds resist breakdown. have provided a solution to the problem of Keio University’s Kenji Miyamoto, and To make a new PET bottle from a used the millions of metric tons of poly(ethylene coworkers, the microbe was dubbed Ideone, the plastic can be hydrolyzed to its terephthalate) that piles up annually in onella sakaiensis. It has the distinction of be- monomers chemically, but this process landfills. Scientists reported this year that ing the world’s first PET-eating bacterium. requires high temperatures and pressures. a bacterium they found at a PET bottle reAlthough PET is the most recycled plastic I. sakaiensis uses two enzymes to dice up the cycling facility in Sakai, in the U.S., more polymer at a surprisingly mild 30 °C, enJapan, uses the plastic Two enzymes help a newly discovered than half of it still abling the researchers to recover the monoas its primary carbon bacterium, seen here in a micrograph, ends up in landfills mers terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol. and energy source (Scibreak down poly(ethylene where the polymer’s At the moment, I. sakaiensis and its enence 2016, DOI: 10.1126/ terephthalate) commonly used in zymes need some tweakscience.aad6359). The drink bottles and food containers. ing before they’re ready bacterium or its isoto chow down on large O O lated enzymes could amounts of the world’s 300 nm PET someday purposefully PET waste: The bacteO O n devour water bottles, rium prefers to dine on Two enzymes: salad domes, peanut amorphous PET, rather PETase and MHETase butter jars, and any than the crystalline PET other plastic items emused in most products, O O blazoned with a numand the enzymes work OH + ber one inside a recycle too slowly to be used inHO HO OH symbol. dustrially.—BETHANY Discovered by KyoHALFORD Ideonella sakaiensis Ethylene glycol Terephthalic acid DECEMBER 12/19, 2016 | CEN.ACS.ORG | C&EN
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