The MicroLab v0.5

The Microlab is a do-it-yourself Controlled Lab Reactor (CLR). You don’t need a CLR to make chemical reactions happen, but it makes the process of synthesizing compounds from precursors much easier and more reliable.

A CLR is to organic chemistry what an espresso machine is to coffee. It is possible to make coffee over an open fire with nothing more than beans, water, and a tin can. But you will get a better, more consistent cup of coffee from an automatic machine that dispenses the right amount of water at the right temperature in such a way that ensures the water is in contact with the grounds for the right amount of time.

Commercial CLRs are the equivalent of high end, fully automatic espresso machines. As long as the appropriate reservoirs are filled with beans, water, milk, and flavoring, anyone can craft a perfect mocha topped with steamed milk at the touch of a button.

The Microlab is more like a home espresso machine that will let you reliably make a good cappuccino but won’t do every single step for you. For both the espresso machine and the CLR you need to understand basic lab procedures, measurement techniques, and safety.

The Microlab is designed to load a recipe for a chemical reaction, then automate the temperature control, reagent addition, and stirring that are needed. It is designed for small-molecule organic chemistry to make certain medicinal compounds in your own home or workshop.

Status: 5th generation beta, real-world chemistry tests beginning late 2023

Vinni

Pssst. Need some help? Vinni is our friendly alchemist who will help you navigate your new medical laboratory.

Vinni is the doorway to Chemhactika, where you’ll find tools for synthesis research. Once you’ve identified your reactions, the Apocatherium will help you create recipes for the Microlab.

Status: MVP complete for recipe creation (see The Apothecarium below). Stay tuned for updates on research assistant capabilities.

Chemhacktica

Good developers code. Great developers fork. We rebuilt this MIT-DARPA project to integrate with our MicroLab Suite. Chemhacktica uses machine learning to automagically discover reaction pathways to target compounds. Available tools include:

1. Interactive Pathway Planning – to explore reaction pathways by chaining together one-step retrosynthesis predictions
2. Tree-Builder – to generate and view possible synthesis plans, with manual step-wise evaluation
3. Synthesis Predictor – to evaluate a reaction in the forward direction, considering reaction condtions and impurities
4. A tool to predict aromatic C-H site selectivity
5. SCScore Evaluator – to analyze a chemical’s perceived synthetic complexity
6. Buyable Look-up – to check if a chemical is in the buyables database
7. Atom-mapping – Use WLN or heuristics to map a reaction SMILES
8. Drawing – to draw molecules, reactions, or templates from SMILES/SMARTS strings

Status: MVP complete, further integrations with Vinni pending.

The Apothecarium

Once your target compounds identified and reactions mapped, the next step is to plan the synthesis. The Apothecarium (also integrated with Vinni) provides an interface to build instructions files for the Microlab.

Status: MVP complete, more features may be added.