Improving the use of synthetic chemistry space at Argenta Discovery

Argenta Discovery has implemented the StarFish™ heating and stirring workstation from Radleys to improve the use of synthetic chemistry space in several of its laboratories at its Harlow, United Kingdom, headquarters.

Argenta Discovery is a privately-held drug discovery company, applying its integrated medicinal chemistry, biology, ADMET and CADD expertise to drive drug discovery programmes for global pharmaceutical and biotech clients and its own in-house therapeutics programmes. Argenta's synthetic chemistry laboratories are widely acknowledged as providing informed and effective contract research services in many therapeutic areas. Consequently, the company undertakes a range of activities involved in medicinal chemistry research, such as milligramme to multigramme-scale reactions from -78°C to 200°C, under air, inert and reactive atmospheres utilising a wide range of reaction systems, all competing for fume cupboard space. For simpler heating and stirring reactions in standard glassware Argenta had traditionally employed oil baths or aluminium blocks. However, in addition to the mess and safety issues inherent with such apparatus, to cope with multiple reactions in different vessels it was necessary to employ several systems that occupied a large area of valuable fume cupboard space.

Purpose designed to provide a safe, clean and more productive alternative to using oil baths and heating mantles, the Radleys StarFish™ system offered the space-saving, ease-of-use, rapid set-up, operational safety improvements and versatility sought by Argenta. Matthew Gill, a synthetic chemist at Argenta Discovery, commented "The StarFish™ offers us significant space saving, as five round-bottomed flasks can be placed on a single stirrer hotplate with the novel manifolds offering a tidier system for gas/vacuum and water delivery". He added, "We have also benefited from the fact that the StarFish™ can accommodate a range of different vessel types on the same system. The StarFish™ is clearly helping us achieve maximum use of valuable laboratory space".

Priced to be affordable for any laboratory, the modular StarFish™ sets a new standard for operational flexibility. The StarFish™ can be configured to provide, at its simplest level, simultaneous stirring and heating of a wide variety of vessel types and sizes - from small 2ml vials to 250ml round-bottomed flasks. Yet the same system can also be configured to perform more complex procedures in parallel including synthesis, extraction, concentration, distillation and digestion.

To make best use of existing laboratory resources, the StarFish™ accepts most popular brands of standard glassware. With a choice of base plates, the StarFish™ will fit on all leading brands of stirring hotplate - making it the most versatile heating and stirring system available.