Todd M. Przybycien

Protein A (ProA) chromatography is used extensively in the biopharmaceutical industry for the selective capture of both polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). This work provides a comparison of the adsorptive behavior of a highly heterogeneous polyclonal hIgG versus that of a mAb as well as the behavior of their mixtures on representative ProA resins. Both pH gradient elution and frontal loading experiments using human polyclonal IgG (hIgG) reveal a distribution of IgG‐ProA binding strengths likely associated with multiple IgG subclasses and the heterogeneity of the variable region. pH gradient analysis of fractions collected along the breakthrough curve demonstrate a clear progression from weaker binding (higher pH eluting) to stronger binding (lower pH eluting) IgG species leaving the column suggesting the possibility of stronger binding species displacing the weaker binding ones. Displacement is directly observed by visualizing the adsorption of fluorescently labeled mAb and hIgG using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). Here, the displacement of hIgG results in a broad adsorption front compared to the sharp, “shrinking core” behavior typically observed with mAbs. Sequential CLSM adsorption experiments with a mAb and hIgG confirm that stronger or equivalent‐binding hIgG species are able to displace and desorb bound mAb molecules. These phenomena are examined using a variety of ProA resins including CaptivA PriMAB, MabSelect, and MabSelect SuRe to understand the effect of different ligand properties on binding strength and competition among different IgG species. The results of these comparisons suggest that the competition kinetics are slower with ligands that have a single‐point covalent attachment to the base matrix compared to a multi‐point attachment. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2017;114: 1803–1812.

Chemical modification of macromolecular affinity chromatography ligands with polyethylene glycol chains or “PEGylation” can potentially improve selectivity by sterically suppressing non‐specific binding interactions without sacrificing binding capacity. For a commercial protein A affinity media and with yeast extract (YE) and fetal bovine serum (FBS) serving as mock contaminants, we found that the ligand accounted for more than 90% of the media‐associated non‐specific binding, demonstrating an opportunity for improvement. The IgG static binding affinity of protein A mono‐PEGylated with 5.0 and 20.7 kDa poly(ethylene glycol) chains was found to be preserved using a biomolecular interaction screening platform. Similar in situ PEGylations of the commercial protein A media were conducted and the modified media was functionally characterized with IgG solutions spiked with YE and FBS. Ligand PEGylation reduced the mass of media‐associated contaminants by a factor of two to three or more. Curiously, we also found an increase of up to 15% in the average recovery of IgG on elution after PEGylation. Combined, these effects produced an order of magnitude increase in the IgG selectivity on average when spiked with YE and a two‐ to three‐fold increase when spiked with FBS relative to the commercial media. Dynamic binding capacity and mass‐transfer resistance measurements revealed a reduction in dynamic capacity attributed to a decrease in IgG effective pore diffusivity and possibly slower IgG association kinetics for the PEGylated protein A ligands. Ligand PEGylation is a viable approach to improving selectivity in affinity chromatography with macromolecular ligands. © 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 30:1364–1379, 2014

We investigated the phenomenon of incomplete wetting of a high-energy liquid subphase by drops of pure amphiphilic molecules as well as drops of amphiphile solutions that are immiscible with the subphase. We show that amphiphiles escape across the contact line of the drop, move on the subphase/vapor interface, and form a submonolayer or full monolayer external to the drop. If this monolayer is sufficiently dense, then it can reduce the surface tension of the subphase, raise the contact angle of the drop, and prevent the drop from fully wetting the subphase. This phenomenon is called autophobing and has been extensively studied on solid substrates. For the liquid subphase studied here, we measure the surface tensions of the three relevant interfaces before and after the drop is deposited. The measured surface tension external to the drop shows that amphiphiles can move across the contact line and form a monolayer outside of the drop. In some cases, at equilibrium, the monolayer is in a sufficiently packed state to create the nonwetting condition. In other cases, at equilibrium the monolayer density is insufficient to lower the surface tension enough to achieve the nonwetting condition. Unlike on solid substrates where the formation of the monolayer external to the drop is kinetically hindered, the amphiphiles can move rapidly across the liquid subphase by Marangoni-driven surface transport, and local equilibrium is achieved. However, because the amphiphile inventory and subphase area are limited, the achievement of autophobing on a liquid subphase depends not only on the instrinsic subphase/amphiphile interaction but also on the total amphiphile inventory and area of the liquid subphase.

BACKGROUND: This work describes a flowsheet optimization framework for the development of protein purification operations involving aqueous two‐phase protein extraction (ATPE). The framework encompasses both the flowsheet and thermodynamic calculations and predicts the optimal flowsheets for the application of ATPE systems.RESULTS: Results presented were generated by applying an optimization algorithm to a previous case study with demonstrated feasible solutions¹ concerning the recovery of phosphofructokinase from a simple model feedstock containing both phosphofructokinase and ovalbumin using poly(ethylene glycol)‐dextran (PEG6000‐DxT500) two‐phase systems. An optimal flowsheet for a one‐stage extraction unit and improved flowsheets for two‐stage extraction units with and without recycle were determined based on the minimum scaled process cost subject to attainment of liquid‐liquid equilibrium in the ATPE system(s) and constraints on product yield, product purity and phase settling rates. The cost performance factors of feasible one‐stage and two‐stage flowsheets with and without recycle were improved by 4.7%, 8.6% and 33.1%, respectively, relative to the prior work.CONCLUSION: This flowsheet optimization framework was able to predict the optimal flowsheets for protein purification from a two‐protein mixture using ATPE systems, subject to some limitations. The algorithm has the potential to be successfully applied to predict protein extraction from complex mixtures upon improvement in its computational robustness. Copyright © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry