Mar 13, 2015 11:51 AM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

A team of chemists at the University of Illinois has developed a machine to easily create molecules the way engineers would do with a 3-D printer creating instruments.

"We wanted to take a very complex process, chemical synthesis, and make it simple," Martin Burke, a chemistry professor at UI and a scientist at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, said in a press release. "Simplicity enables automation, which, in turn, can broadly enable discovery and bring the substantial power of making molecules to nonspecialists."

Burke and his team published their work Friday in the journal Science. The machine is able to print "small molecules," which are vital to the development of various medications used today.

"This provides extraordinary synthetic access to complex molecules like those found in nature, which allows us to make atom-by-atom modifications to redesign these molecules for serious diseases," Mark Goldsmith, the CEO of Revolution Medicines and a partner at Third Rock Ventures, told Forbes.

Burke is a co-founder of Revolution Medicines and the company obtained licensing for automated synthesis technology. Burke said in the release the company will start out focusing on anti-fungal treatments.

"Up to now, the bottleneck has been synthesis," Burke said. "There are many areas where progress is being slowed, and many molecules that pharmaceutical companies aren't even working on, because the barrier to synthesis is so high.

"It is expected that the technology will similarly create new opportunities in other therapeutic areas as well, as the industrialization of the technology will help refine and broaden its scope and scalability."

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