AltOligo: Alternative chemistry for oligonucleotide synthesis using Nanostar Sieving

Making a single short strand of synthetic RNA for a new drug can cost hundreds of pounds because current manufacturing methods are inefficient and produce impure material. The problem is solid-phase synthesis, the standard method for building these "oligonucleotides." It binds the growing molecule to a solid bead, adding one building block at a time. This process is difficult to scale up, and the final product often contains many defective strands that must be laboriously removed, driving up costs for therapies that target genetic diseases, cancers, and rare disorders. The UK start-up Exactmer has developed a patented alternative: performing the entire synthesis in liquid, not on a solid surface. The AltOligo project will bring this liquid-phase technology to market. If successful, it could slash manufacturing costs and dramatically speed up the development of complex RNA-based drugs. The impact would be felt not in daily life directly, but in the pharmaceutical supply chain—making advanced therapies cheaper to produce and, potentially, more accessible to patients.