Citation
(1998), "Robots create and test drugs", Industrial Robot, Vol. 25 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.1998.04925bab.007
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 1998, MCB UP Limited
Robots create and test drugs
Robots create and test drugs
Computers and robots will soon be combined in an automated system for creating and testing new drugs, writes Sean Hargrave. The technology under development is made up of three parts. The first is a computer-controlled storage system called Haystack, which is already commercially available. This is basically a sophisticated cupboard that tells robots the location of each chemical that could be used in a new compound. The second is a robotic system in which the ingredients of a potential drug can be mixed. The computer and robotic equipment, known collectively as Myriad, is linked into a database of known compounds. This allows a chemist to set the computer a task of looking for chemicals that are likely to have an effect on a particular disease. When these are brought up on the screen, he can suggest ways of mixing the compounds to create a new drug. When the drugs are ready, the equipment can deposit samples in test tubes. Chemists can then observe if the reaction they are looking for has taken place the equipment can only give a very general picture and still requires humans to examine test results. A compound may, for example, kill a certain type of cell but could, for all the chemists know, damage other human tissue. For these reasons, The Technology Partnership (TTP), the Cambridgeshire firm developing the system, is working on a more advanced, robotic testing system called Acumen. This would actually monitor the results and decide what a compound may need to make it more effective. It would then order its fellow computers that control the early stages of the process to mix up a slightly different batch of chemicals and prepare them for new tests. This automated process could go on until the system believes it has come up with a compound the chemists should investigate fully. TTP's partners in the project include the pharmaceutical giants SmithKline Beecham.
(Source: BRA)