Automated Synthesis Devices

Finally, radiopharmaceuticals are often prepared on a daily basis within the framework of clinical studies which often last several months or years. They demand a viable and reproducible production chain, leading to a sterile- and pyrogen-free radiopharmaceutical of high radiochemical purity. Therefore, microprocessor-controlled automated synthesis devices [31] are developed in order to ensure routine pharmaceutical production. They are becoming mandatory in order to meet the demands related to Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP). 

The automated synthesis device, often called the black box, is a unit controlled by microprocessors and software programs to carry out the sequential physical and chemical steps to accomplish the entire synthesis of a radiolabeled product. The unit consists of templates or vials prefilled with required chemicals attached to the apparatus via tubings that are connected to solenoid... 

The instrument chosen for the evaluation of carbohydrate synthesis was an ABI-433 peptide synthesizer (Fig. 2). The instrument was adapted for carbohydrate synthesis and customized coupling cycles were developed. A specially designed low-temperature reaction vessel was installed and interfaced with a commercially available cooling device.13 The necessary reagents were loaded onto the instrument ports and reaction conditions were programmed on the computer, in a fashion similar to the automated synthesis of peptides. 

Automation and Devices for Combinatorial Chemistry and Parallel Organic Synthesis... 

F]-labeled radiopharmaceuticals are used for the positron emission tomography (PET), which is a noninvasive imaging technique for visualizing molecular processes in humans and animals. [ F] has a half life of 109.7 min, so radiosynthesis should meet certain requirements it should be short, versatile, flexible, and high-yielding to deliver nanomolar amounts in an automated synthesis on demand to avoid dose decay. The utilization of microfluidic devices for radiosynthesis is therefore an adequate approach. Advances in the area of radiosynthesis in microstructured devices until 2010 are summarized in reviews [2a,2p,10]. 

These are total systems or even plants made for parallel automated organic synthesis, typically in the liquid phase. In this section, no commercial devices (typically not relying on micro flow processing) are considered, but rather only specialty apparatus developed in the framework of chemical micro processing. 

Although use of automated oligonucleotide synthesis is widespread, work continues on the optimization of protecting groups, coupling conditions, and deprotection methods, as well as on the automated devices.56... 

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