Details of a novel protein purifier that could help pharmaceutical companies save time and money appear in a recent issue of the journal Langmuir. The high-performance membranes, developed by Michigan State University chemists Merlin Bruening and Greg Baker, are appropriate for protein purification, a central step in the development of various new drugs.
Purifying proteins is an essential step that increases drugs’ effectiveness and safety. However, it is an expensive, time-consuming process that contributes to the high cost of some prescription drugs. According to Bruening, streamlining the process could help manufacturers reduce costs, speed new drugs to consumers, and reduce pharmaceutical costs.
“The membrane devices that we’ve manufactured can simplify protein purification by rapidly capturing the desired protein as it flows through membrane pores,” said Bruening, who has patented the process and is working to scale up his invention. “Our membranes have 2 to 3 times more capacity than existing commercial devices, and they should reduce the purification process time substantially. Typically, our procedures are complete in 30 minutes or less.”
Bruening and Baker were pursuing a comparable purification procedure while trying to grow extended polymer chains in the membranes using a multistep, oxygen-free process. Understanding the intricacies of the first method led the researchers to discover that direct adsorption of acidic polymers at low pH is much simpler but accomplishes the same task of creating extended polymer in the pores.
“Once our findings began steering us toward the simpler solution, we began developing simple processes to modify membranes by simply flowing polymer solutions through the membranes,” Bruening said.
Incorporating his inexpensive membranes as a standard device for rapid protein purification for not only pharmaceutical companies but also researchers is Bruening’s next goal.
Source: Michigan State University.