New breakthrough in chemistry could accelerate drug development

[Anonymous No.11652040]

Scientists have successfully developed a new technique to reliably grow crystals of organic soluble molecules from nanoscale droplets, unlocking the potential of accelerated new drug development.

Chemistry experts from Newcastle and Durham universities, working in collaboration with SPT Labtech, have grown the small crystals from nanoscale encapsulated droplets. Their innovative method, involving the use of inert oils to control evaporative solvent loss, has the potential to enhance the drug development pipeline.

Whilst crystallization of organic soluble molecules is a technique used by scientists all over the world, the ability to do so with such small quantities of analyte is ground-breaking.

Through the use of this new method, called Encapsulated Nanodroplet Crystallisation (ENaCt), the researchers have shown that hundreds of crystallization experiments can be set up within a few minutes. Each experiment involves a few micrograms of molecular analyte dissolved in a few nanolitres of organic solvent and is automated, allowing for rapid set up of hundreds of unique experiments with ease. Concentration of these nanodroplet experiments results in the growth of the desired high quality single crystals that are suitable for modern X-ray diffraction analysis.

Publishing their findings in the journal Chem, the team, led by Drs Hall and Probert, of Newcastle University, UK, successfully developed a new approach to molecular crystallization which allows access, within a few days, to high quality single crystals, whilst requiring only few milligrams of analyte.

We have developed a nanoscale crystallization technique for organic-soluble small molecules, using high-throughput liquid-handling robotics to undertake multiple crystallization experiments simultaneously with minimal sample requirements and high success rates.


https://www.news-medical.net/news/20200508/New-breakthrough-in-chemistry-could-accelerate-drug-development.aspx

[Anonymous No.11652041]

This new method has the potential to have far-reaching impact within the molecular sciences and beyond. Fundamental research will benefit from highly detailed characterization of new molecules, such as natural products or complex synthetic molecules, by X-ray crystallography, whilst the development of new drugs by the pharmaceutical industry will be accelerated, through rapid access to characterized crystalline forms of new active pharmaceutical ingredients."

Dr. Hall, Senior Lecturer in Chemistry, Newcastle University


Understanding these new crystalline forms, known as polymorphs, is essential to the successful generation of new pharmaceutical agents and drugs. The ability to investigate these forms quickly and on a vast scale, whilst minimising the amount of analyte required, could be a key
Breakthrough enabled by the new ENaCT protocol

Dr Paul Thaw from SPT Labtech, added: "Enabling this work to develop a novel high-throughput method for single crystal X-ray diffraction on mosquito® with the Newcastle team has been a pleasure. Having the ability to quickly screen organic soluble small molecules on the microgram scale will deliver valuable insight for both academic research and pharmaceutical drug design and validation."

Dr Probert, Senior Lecturer in Inorganic Chemistry and Head of Crystallography, Newcastle University, commented "...this new approach to crystallization has the ability to transform the scientific landscape for the analysis of small molecules, not only in the drug discovery and delivery areas but also in the more general understanding of the crystalline solid state ..."

[Anonymous No.11652045]

The whole team believe that the ENaCt methodology has the potential rewrite some of the preconceptions within the molecular sciences and beyond.

Source:

Newcastle University
Journal reference:

Tyler, A.R., et al. (2020) Encapsulated Nanodroplet Crystallization of Organic-Soluble Small Molecules. Chem. doi.org/10.1016/j.chempr.2020.04.009.

https://www.cell.com/chem/pdf/S2451-9294(20)30177-7.pdf

[Anonymous No.11652063]

Very based

[Anonymous No.11652094]

>>11652040
>muh magic crystals duuudes trust me
>>>/x/

[Anonymous No.11652746]

>Dr Hall
>NCL uni
never thought I would hear from him on 4chan
I had a beer with him once pretty chill guy
That's a really cool paper

[Anonymous No.11652751]

>>11652040
would it be possible with this technique to cristallize DNA with an intercalator to study it's structure?

[Anonymous No.11652763]

Man this is probably 100% legit but it's giving me Theranos flashbacks a little

[Anonymous No.11652770]

>>11652763
tbf it's from a public money not from a private company
it's published in Cell press chem, (impact factor of 18) wich is pretty good

[Anonymous No.11652774]

Combine this with all the AI shit and we're looking at some crazy progress in pharmacology in the next decade boyos!

[Anonymous No.11653286]

bump

[Anonymous No.11653320]

>>11652040
sad to see when there is an actual science thread there is no one to talk about it

[Anonymous No.11653336]

>>11653320
90% of this board is 16 y.o.s thinking they're smart cause they got a B in a science exam

[Anonymous No.11653339]

>>11652040
What are crystals used for? How do they work?

[Anonymous No.11653373]

>>11653339
basically some molecules don't crystalize easily, they often need very long time at low temp.
With this technique you can easily crystalize a lot of molecules for Xray diffraction that gives you the structure of the molecule/drug/protein that way you could manufacture a drug with a specific spatial arrangement.
correct me if i'm wrong i'm a pchem not at all into all that

[Anonymous No.11653383]

>>11653373
it's also easy to do on a large scale with little solvent and product. Which is great for a screening of of potential drugs

[Anonymous No.11653390]

>>11653373
So the crystals are required for xray diffraction? Crystallising the substances helps in analysis?

[Anonymous No.11653401]

>>11653390
yes if something is not crystalline you cannot use X-ray diffraction to understand the spatial structure

[Anonymous No.11653408]

>>11653390
>>11653401
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray_crystallography
if this can help

[Anonymous No.11653468]

By "encapsulated droplets" they mean taking nanoscale amounts of pure crystals and dissolving them in inert non-polar solvents that won't evap fast for those amounts? How do they remove the inert solvent if the crystals are soluble, freeze precipitate and filter out? Then they have a machine concentrate these droplets together one at a time to grow the seed crystals into larger crystal structures known as polymorphs?

[Anonymous No.11653558]

>>11653401
>>11653408
Thanks Anon. Looks pretty cool.

So this development hinges off the uncertainty of synthesis? i.e. there's a large degree of trial and error involved, so being able to check lots of different permutations speeds up development?

[Anonymous No.11653570]

>>11653558
yes exactly

[Anonymous No.11653584]

>>11653468
I think they mean they encapsulate the droplet wiht an inert oil, with this they can control the evaporation. basically giving more time for the crystal to grow yielding bigger and better crystals

[Anonymous No.11653630]

Friends, I can't crystallize my fucking product. I've tried pentane, ethyl acetate, methyl terbutyl ether, pentane DCM

Pls halp

[Anonymous No.11653780]

>>11653630
Not sure what your product is but:

Pentane = non-polar
Ethyl Acetate = polar aprotic
Methyl Tert-Butyl Ether = non-polar
Pentane/DCM = non-polar/polar aprotic

Maybe try a polar protic solvent? It could be related to temperature, saturation, or speed of crystallization...

[Anonymous No.11653790]

>>11653630
give up, lol. crystals are gay

or try two-solvent recryst

[Anonymous No.11654659]

bump