Winning the Ig Nobel Prize for researchers from Flinders University in Australia in September, the vortex fluidic device (VFD) is capable not only of partially unboiling an egg, but also developing more affordable anesthetic medication.
In their breakthrough study featured in the journal Scientific Reports in May, chemistry professor Colin L. Raston and his team showcased the wonders of the VFD, which enabled a boiled egg to return to its original goopy form.
Raston and his team also discovered that the device can improve the effectiveness of the chemotherapy drug known as carboplatin. By using the VFD to induce carboplatin binding, they were able to increase the anticancer efficicacy of the drug.
Now the team has successfully synthesized the anesthetic Lidocaine using the VFD. Dr. Justin Chalker, co-author of the paper, highlighted the significance of the research.
“[I]t’s a new device. The chemistry is well-established, there are reactions we know,” said Chalker, saying what makes the VFD unique is it makes those chemical reactions occur more rapidly and in a continuous process.
The VFD uses “flow chemistry” to create Lidocaine continually and in a faster, less waste-producing way compared to traditional mass production techniques.
Lidocaine currently requires lengthy, large-scale pharmaceutical production, something that can produce as much as half a ton, or a thousand pounds, of waste per kilogram - just a little over 35 ounces - of drugs created.
The simplicity of using the VFD lies in being “as close as a plug-and-play system as you can get for flow chemistry,” Chalker said.
Lidocaine is created through pumping simple chemical components into the base of the device, with a concentrated and contained reaction that allows production without the need for a large facility.
Raston suggested the use of the VFD in areas such as war zones and developing countries, where there is a high demand for anesthetics but with no production facilities available. He is also hoping the device will be sold worldwide soon.
"Flinders University's in the process of establishing a spin-out company so ultimately - hopefully this year - we'll have a company where we're actually selling these devices," he said, citing the potential of the VFD in the research of 10,000 universities in the world, with applications in chemistry, engineering, biology and medicine.
The VFD has been used for producing biodiesel and is now being explored by researchers in the development of more economical, sustainable technologies in food production, drug manufacturing and other industries.
