Characterisation of Chromatography Media Aimed for Purification of Biomolecules

Abstract: Chromatography media (resins) are very important for and widely used by the biopharma industry in large scale production of biopharmaceuticals, e.g. monoclonal antibodies. Today there are several hundred biopharmaceuticals released globally on the healthcare market. This thesis discusses various strategies and methods for the characterisation of chemical and functional stability of chromatography media. In addition, various analytical techniques used in these areas were evaluated and applied. Further, more specific physical and chemical characterisation methods were evaluated and applied to explore different properties of various chromatography media.In Papers I-III, established methodologies for performing chemical and functional stability studies were used. Mainly agarose-based chromatography media were investigated. For fast screening of the chemical stability, the total organic carbon analysis technique was evaluated and applied. This technique that measures the carbon leakage from the chromatography media at different conditions, proved to be very suitable and robust. For detection and/or identification of leakage compounds responsible for or for part of the measured carbon leakage, different methods such as (high performance) liquid chromatography and gas chromatography mass spectrometry were used.In Papers IV-VII, different properties (i.e. functional performance, ligand content and surface chemistry) were evaluated for different agarose-based chromatography media. Standard chromatographic methods (ion exchange chromatography) and spectroscopic methods (e.g. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry) were evaluated and applied. Chemometric methods were used for efficient evaluation of data.Information of chemical, functional and leakage data of chromatography media are valuable and important for the biopharmaceutical companies to be able to fulfil the regulatory requirements of biopharmaceuticals. In addition, information of various chemical, functional and physical properties of chromatography media is likewise important during development and set up of new biopharmaceutical processes.