Well, the biggest development over the last year was the organ on a chip. Literally will be more influential than CRISPR. Not only will it slash drug research cost and make it exponentially faster to get to pharmacies, it also will make mice/rat testing pointless. Down the line we'll have a human body on a chip for testing as well as be able to print organs for patients using their DNA, so no wait times or risk of rejection!

This article covers a method to produce organic molecules (organic = carbon based) allowing for drugs with high risk factors only used as a last resort to be used earlier by reducing the symptoms. Additionally, with AI generating new proteins and drugs we've never seen before, this development will allow scientists to produce them quickly, plus the organ on a chip can test them to ensure it's safe for human consumption or specifically identify the issue so it can be corrected.

[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Sounds too good to be true. What's the catch?

[–] shreddy_scientist@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I deeply appreciate your cautious optimism but we're living in the most advanced times ever. Breakthroughs do only imply the job was done but doesn't mean it's ready for wide spread use. It could have issues with certain elements and structures or have a wide range of error. Yet, the fact it's been done means there's a solid platform to work from moving forward.

[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 3 points 1 year ago

Hope is hard to come by these days, gotta cherish wins like these. :)

[–] Parsnip8904 5 points 1 year ago

It's the very first starting point. Benzene is far away from real drug molecules most of the time (some are quite simple though like paracetamol). I think the real challenge will be too extended this to three dimensions. Their technique involves trapping atoms on metal surfaces which will be hard pressed to simulate three dimensional structures.