An autonomous portable platform for universal chemical synthesis

• Published in: Nature chemistry Vol. 14; no. 11; pp. 1311 - 1318
• Main Authors: Manzano, J. Sebastián, Hou, Wenduan, Zalesskiy, Sergey S., Frei, Przemyslaw, Wang, Hsin, Kitson, Philip J., Cronin, Leroy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01-11-2022; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 639/166/898; 639/638/403/933; 639/638/549/973; 639/638/898; Analytical Chemistry; Automation; Biochemistry; Chemical synthesis; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Chemistry/Food Science; Inorganic Chemistry; Laboratories; Oligonucleotides; Oligopeptides; Organic Chemistry; Physical Chemistry; Portability; Programming languages; Quality control; Reactors
• ISSN: 1755-4330; 1755-4349
• DOI: 10.1038/s41557-022-01016-w

Robotic systems for synthetic chemistry are becoming more common, but they are expensive, fixed to a narrow set of reactions, and must be used within a complex laboratory environment. A portable system that could synthesize known molecules anywhere, on demand, and in a fully automated way, could revolutionize access to important molecules. Here we present a portable suitcase-sized chemical synthesis platform containing all the modules required for synthesis and purification. The system uses a chemical programming language coupled to a digital reactor generator to produce reactors and executable protocols based on text-based literature syntheses. Simultaneously, the platform generates a reaction pressure fingerprint, used to monitor processes within the reactors and remotely perform a protocol quality control. We demonstrate the system by synthesizing five small organic molecules, four oligopeptides and four oligonucleotides, in good yields and purities, with a total of 24,936 base steps executed over 329 h of platform runtime.
Automated systems, nowadays more commonly used in laboratory settings, are typically fixed to a narrow set of reactions and used within a complex laboratory environment. Now, a portable platform has been developed for the on-demand and on-site multistep synthesis of organic molecules, oligonucleotides and oligopeptides mapped into reactionware systems.