University of Glasgow researchers are adapting 3D printing technology to create downloadable pharmaceuticals. Calling it a “Chemputer,” they used two commercial, $2000 3D printers to assemble chemical compounds using open-source CAD software. One 3D printer makes the beakers and the other the chemical molecules. Combined, the researchers call them Reactionware vessels.
Professor Lee Cronin, who leads the research team, said the technology could create drugs in a new way using a universal set of chemical inks. "You download the blueprint -- the organic chemistry -- for that molecule and make it in the device. You can make your molecule in the printer using this software," he said during a TED talk. "Ultimately, it could mean you can print your own medicine."
3D printed pharmaceuticals
The research, published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature, demonstrated how printing a vessel with “catalyst-laced ink,” together with another container with built-in carbon-based electrodes, stimulated an electrochemical reaction within the vessel.
The printers have synthesized previously unreported compounds, according to the researchers. While still in the early stages, Cronin sees a day when consumers could download and print personalized medications.
“Perhaps with the introduction of carefully-controlled software ‘apps,’ we could see consumers have access to a personal drug designer they could use at home to create the medication they need,” he said in a statement. -ted.com