Exploring the use of heparin as a first capture step in the purification of monoclonal antibodies from cell culture supernatants

Minimizing the Influence of Fluorescent Tags on IgG Partition in PEG-Salt Aqueous Two-Phase Systems for Rapid Screening Applications

Aqueous two-phase extraction (ATPE) has been showing significant potential in the biopharmaceutical industry, allowing the selective separation of high-value proteins directly from unclarified cell culture supernatants. In this context, effective high-throughput screening tools are critical to perform a rapid empirical optimization of operating conditions. In particular, microfluidic ATPE screening devices, coupled with fluorescence microscopy to continuously monitor the partition of fluorophore-labeled proteins, have been recently demonstrated to provide short diffusion distances and rapid partition, using minimal reagent volumes. Nevertheless, the currently overlooked influence of the labeling procedure on partition must be carefully evaluated to validate the extrapolation of results to the unlabeled molecule. Here, three fluorophores with different global charge and reactivity selected to label immunoglobulin G (IgG) at degrees of labeling (DoL) ranging from 0.5 to 7.6. Labeling with BODIPY FL maleimide (DoL = 0.5), combined with tris(2-carboxyethyl) phosphine (TCEP) to generate free thiol groups, is the most promising strategy to minimize the influence of the fluorophore on partition. In particular, the partition coefficient (K_p ) measured in polyethylene glycol (PEG) 3350-phosphate systems with and without the addition of NaCl using microtubes (batch) or microfluidic devices (continuous) is comparable to those quantified for the native protein.

Bioprocess monitoring: minimizing sample matrix effects for total protein quantification with bicinchoninic acid assay

Determining total protein content is a routine operation in many laboratories. Despite substantial work on assay optimization interferences, the widely used bicinchoninic acid (BCA) assay remains widely recognized for its robustness. Especially in the field of bioprocess engineering the inaccuracy caused by interfering substances remains hardly predictable and not well understood. Since the introduction of the assay, sample pre-treatment by trichloroacetic acid (TCA) precipitation has been indicated as necessary and sufficient to minimize interferences. However, the sample matrix in cultivation media is not only highly complex but also dynamically changing over process time in terms of qualitative and quantitative composition. A significant misestimation of the total protein concentration of bioprocess samples is often observed when following standard work-up schemes such as TCA precipitation, indicating that this step alone is not an adequate means to avoid measurement bias. Here, we propose a modification of the BCA assay, which is less influenced by sample complexity. The dynamically changing sample matrix composition of bioprocessing samples impairs the conventional approach of compensating for interfering substances via a static offset. Hence, we evaluated the use of a correction factor based on an internal spike measurement for the respective samples. Using protein spikes, the accuracy of the BCA protein quantification could be improved fivefold, taking the BCA protein quantification to a level of accuracy comparable to other, more expensive methods. This will allow reducing expensive iterations in bioprocess development to due inaccurate total protein analytics.