The toolbox of the synthetic biologist.
By Martina Geier - The pharma industry is in search of sustainable and cost-effective manufacturing processes for drugs. In the "CHEM21" project, project teams from TU Graz and acib developed genetic tools to provide tailored microorganisms for quick and straight forward drug production approaches. Classical drug production processes often require up to 100 kg of raw materials to manufacture 1 kg of the active ingredient of a drug. This inefficiency does not only constitute a problem for the environment, but is also responsible for the price of current medicines. In addition, the scarcity of precious metals such as platinum is an emerging issue in the pharma industry as they are frequently used as catalysts in many of the current synthesis routes. To solve these problems in a sustainable way, innovative alternative production methods are needed. The CHEM21 project funded by the EU and by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) is focused on the development of exactly such methods for the pharmaceutical industry of the 21st century.
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