DeepMatter, a company focused on digitising chemistry, has been selected as a partner for the University of Leeds following a £1.4m ($1.95m) EPSRC investment the institution received to develop automated precision manufacturing approaches, in collaboration with the University of Sheffield, AstraZeneca, Somaserve and Samsung.
DeepMatter will provide its DigitalGlassware software, a cloud-based platform that allows chemists to share data in real-time and digitally enable scale-up of advanced nanoparticle products. The technology to digitally enable the scale-up of advanced nanoparticle products is aimed to be a sustainable, cost-effective alternative to the current method of production.
DigitalGlassware was selected owing to its strong fit for early-stage chemical development. It comprises a cloud-based software platform, which allows scientists to easily bring together digitised synthesis protocols (recipes) and contextualise time-course sensor streams from a range of analytical instrumentation in real-time.
In addition to the cloud-based software, DeepMatter will provide its sensor package, DeviceX, which provides information on chemical reaction data, as well as a hardware device to interface with the continuous platforms at the University of Leeds. Because of the structuring of content enabled by DigitalGlassware in the cloud, the aggregated chemical data is amenable to ML and AI applications, the company says, from which insights can be applied to shape experimental design to improve the outcome of the grant.
Dr Nicholas Warren, from the School of Chemical and Process Engineering at the University of Leeds, is leading the research alongside colleagues Dr Richard Bourne and Dr Thomas Chamberlain from the School of Chemistry, and researchers from the University of Sheffield.
Mark Warne, CEO of DeepMatter Group, commented: "We are delighted to be partnering with both the key opinion leaders at the University of Leeds and University of Sheffield, as well as large pharma companies. Our DigitalGlassware platform will be used to provide a unique perspective on the data helping with both discovery and productivity gains for chemical reactions forming nanoparticles - an essential component in delivering effective mRNA vaccines."
Dr Nicholas Warren, Associate Professor at the University of Leeds, added: "Sustainable and cost-effective scale-up is yet to be achieved with nanomaterials production, so to address this issue we are developing platform technologies with advanced chemical reactors underpinned by computational intelligence. The data captured by DigitalGlassware in real-time allows us to use ML and AI directed decisions contributing to self-optimising reactions helping us to build up an understanding of the processes and fine-tune reaction conditions leading to a scaled-up, commercially viable production of advanced nanoparticle products."
