New process significantly speeds up chemical reactions

 

TORONTO, January 24, 2005 -- York U. organic chemistry Prof. Michael Organ has developed a proprietary process that could significantly shorten the time it takes to bring pharmaceutical drugs to market by speeding up chemical reactions in the laboratory. Organ’s new Capillary Flow Reactor will now enable chemical reactions that previously took up to an entire day to be achieved in mere seconds.

“The traditional round bottom flask, used in most pharmaceutical drug development, is really the bottle-neck of the industry,” says Organ. “Until now, we have been severely limited by the amount of time it takes to achieve chemical reaction.”

Previously, Organ noted, the fastest process to develop chemical compounds for the drug industry employed multiple flasks and was called parallel synthesis. Organ’s new reactor, developed with Post Doctoral Fellow Eamon Comer, makes parallel synthesis faster and more efficient. 

Organ’s reactor works by drawing fluid through four glass capillaries at a time while under microwave irradiation. A micro channel effect is created as the capillaries draw liquid from one hundred to one thousand microns in diameter through microwave irradiation. This process completes chemical reactions in a matter of seconds, where in the past, it could take an entire day to create one reaction.

The microwave that Organ’s team uses is a Smith Synthesizer, donated by the company Biotage in Uppsala, Sweden. Biotage, a collaborator in this project, has made a considerable donation to this research, and their engineers are working towards making the Capillary Flow Reactor marketable within the next year.

 

York University is the leading interdisciplinary research and teaching university in Canada. York offers a modern, academic experience at the undergraduate and graduate level in Toronto, Canada’s most international city.  The third largest university in the country, York is host to a dynamic academic community of 50,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, as well as 180,000 alumni worldwide. York’s 10 faculties and 21 research centres conduct ambitious, groundbreaking research that is interdisciplinary, cutting across traditional academic boundaries.  This distinctive and collaborative approach is preparing students for the future and bringing fresh insights and solutions to real-world challenges.

 

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For more information, the media should contact:

George McNeillie, York U. Media Relations, 416-736-2100 x22091 / gmcneil@yorku.ca