APPLICATION OF COMPACT POROUS DISKS FOR FAST SEPARATIONS OF BIOPOLYMERS AND IN-PROCESS CONTROL IN BIOTECHNOLOGY

Production and downstream processing in biotechnology requires fast an d accurate control of each step in the process, Improved techniques wh ich can be validated are required in order to meet these demands. For these purposes, chromatographic units containing compact porous disks for fast separation of biopolymers were developed and investigated wit h regard to their performance and speed, The problems that have, in th e past, arisen from the use of wide and flat separation units, such as membranes and disks, have chiefly been those of sample distribution a nd large void volumes before and behind the unit. Improvements in the construction of the cartridge have led to better performance of the co mpact porous disks and faster separation, Using these disks, three cal ibration standard proteins could be separated within less than 1 min b y an anion-exchange, cation-exchange, and hydrophobic interaction mode , Such units can be used for in-process control in production and down stream processing of biopolymers, as was shown in experiments involvin g the purification of al-antitrypsin and clotting factor IX and the im mobilization of enzyme glucose oxidase on an epoxy-activated compact p orous disk.