In a journal Science paper, “Bonding Carbons Iteratively,” Martin D. Burke details a method for building small molecules using prefabricated building blocks called "bloccs."
Unlike traditional chemical synthesis, which for nearly two centuries has long required specialized human expertise, "blocc chemistry" allows carbon-carbon bonds, the backbone connections in nearly all organic molecules, to be iteratively and automatically assembled. This shift enables robotic synthesis, AI-driven molecular discovery, and makes chemical creation accessible to non-specialists, students, and citizen scientists.
Burke also emphasized that broadened accessibility needs to be coupled with shared responsibility "to establish safeguards and best practices to ensure that small-molecule discovery is leveraged safely and responsibly.”
To translate that call into action, the MML is assembling an international task force of global thought leaders that spans chemistry, artificial intelligence, medicine, industry, science education, students and community members, to prospectively shape safeguards that can guide and govern this technology as it scales.