The University of Manchester is part of a multi-million pound project to produce chemicals for the cosmetics and food industry that are more environmentally friendly. These innovations, being led by DSM Chemical Technology R&D BV, will then be used to make safer and more effective drugs and to develop chemicals for the perfume industry and flavorings for the food industry. University of Manchester academics are leading research into drug metabolism as part of the project. The £8.5m Horizon 2020 EU project, ROBOX, is a partnership of companies and universities from across Europe. Together they will develop sustainable alternatives to industrial oxidation utilizing innovative biocatalysts and just air in a safe and green way that is not currently available to the industry. These developments will have several environmental and safety advantages over conventional chemical manufacturing methods presently applied in industry.
Professor Nicholas Turner from The University of Manchester will lead the initiative for the use of these novel techniques to produce drug metabolites that will be used to make new drugs better and safer.