Mick Sherburn outside the Research School of Chemistry
Chemists have developed a revolutionary new way to manufacture natural chemicals and used it to assemble a scarce anti-inflammatory drug with potential to treat cancer and malaria. The breakthrough could lead to new and cheaper ways to produce rare drugs in large quantities. "We took small molecules and clipped them together like Lego," said lead researcher Professor Michael Sherburn, from the Research School of Chemistry. "The building blocks are carefully designed in such a way that the first reaction generates a product perfectly primed for the second. It's quite magical. This means you can efficiently build large and complex molecules." Medicines of this type have traditionally been made in a cumbersome way. Chemists take a related molecule and renovate it.
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