• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

World’s First “Atomic Editing” Technology Could Revolutionize Drug Discovery

October 14, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

In a world first, scientists have successfully developed single-atom editing technology that can be used to maximize drug efficacy. The “dream” technology enables researchers to tweak individual atoms quickly and easily, and should help to enhance drug discovery.

The breakthrough comes from a team at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), who figured out a way to convert an oxygen atom in a furan compound – an organic compound with a five-membered ring that contains four carbon atoms and one oxygen atom – into a nitrogen atom. The resulting molecule is a pyrrole, which is widely used in pharmaceuticals.

Advertisement
Ball-and-stick model of the furan molecule, C4H4O

The furan compound, C4H4O. The molecule has a five-membered ring containing four carbon atoms (black) and one oxygen atom (red). The white denotes hydrogen atoms.

The properties of a drug depend on the arrangement of its constituent atoms – change just one of these atoms, and you could change the efficacy of the drug itself. This has become known as the “Single Atom Effect”. Achieving it, however, is not easy. Typically, attempts involve multi-step, costly synthesis processes, and require harsh conditions – all of which is far from optimal.

The team from KAIST, led by Professor Yoonsu Park, has overcome these usual challenges by using the energy from light to swap an oxygen atom for nitrogen.

“This offers a powerful capability that could streamline chemical synthesis, transform complex molecules, and advance drug discovery,” write Ellie F. Plachinski and Tehshik P. Yoon, who were not involved in the research, in a Perspective accompanying the study.

Advertisement

Park and colleagues developed a photocatalyst – a molecule that accelerates a reaction upon exposure to light – which acts as a “molecular scissor” to snip five-membered rings, thus allowing single-atom editing at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. It is the first time that this has ever been achieved.

Applying the technology to a furan compound, the team was able to remove an oxygen atom via single-electron oxidation and then exchange it for a nitrogen atom under mild conditions. 

The approach, Plachinski and Yoon write, is an “exceptional example of a molecular editing reaction” and can be applied to a variety of natural products and pharmaceuticals that contain furan compounds. 

“This breakthrough, which allows for the selective editing of five-membered organic ring structures, will open new doors for building libraries of drug candidates, a key challenge in pharmaceuticals,” said Park in a statement. “I hope this foundational technology will be used to revolutionize the drug development process.”

Advertisement

The study is published in the journal Science.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Cricket-Manchester test likely to be postponed after India COVID-19 case
  2. EU to attend U.S. trade meeting put in doubt by French anger
  3. Soccer-West Ham win again, Leicester and Napoli falter
  4. Was Jesus A Hallucinogenic Mushroom? One Scholar Certainly Thought So

Source Link: World’s First "Atomic Editing" Technology Could Revolutionize Drug Discovery

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • 6 Leading Medical Organizations Team Up To Sue RFK Jr Over COVID-19 Vaccine Policy
  • Less Ice, More Fire: Evidence Melting Glaciers Make Volcanic Eruptions More Explosive
  • This Mini Fridge-Sized Spacecraft Could Study A Time Of The Universe We’ve Never Seen Before
  • Psilocybin Shows Potential In Slowing Human Cell Aging And Increasing Lifespan In Mice
  • Blue Sharks’ Freaky Tooth-Skin Makes It Possible For Them To Change Color To Green And Even Gold
  • Summer In The Northern Hemisphere Will Be 15 Minutes Shorter Than Last Year’s
  • Your Ability To Be Funny May Not Be Inherited After All, And That’s Really Unexpected
  • New Interstellar Comet Tracked To Its Origin Region: “It’s Much Older Than The Solar System”
  • ChatGPT Gets “Absolutely Wrecked” By An Atari Video Chess Game Built In 1979
  • Tick Bites Are Nearing Record Highs In Some US States – Why Is This Season So Bad?
  • Rivals Wanted To Erase This Great Female Pharaoh From History, But Is That The Whole Story?
  • Neanderthals Repurposed Cave Lion Bones Into “Multifunctional Tools” 130,000 Years Ago
  • Jumping Spiders: With Cute Eyes And Complex Behavior, They’re Nature’s Most Charismatic Arachnids
  • Scientists Dropped A Cow Carcass 1,629 Meters Into The South China Sea – And 8 Unexpected Visitors Turned Up
  • A Colossal Moa: One Of The Biggest Birds Ever To Walk The Earth Becomes 5th “De-Extinction” Species
  • Aliens Up To 200 Light-Years Away Could Find Earth Thanks To Our Airports
  • For The First Time, Wild Rays Have Been Filmed Telling Sharks To “Back Off!” With Electric Shocks
  • Gonorrhea Vaccines, New Antibiotics, And At-Home Testing: What’s The Latest In STI Research?
  • What NASA’s Galileo Spacecraft Saw As It Plunged Into Jupiter
  • Very Hungry “Plastivore” Caterpillars Get Fat From Eating Plastic
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version