Bioproduction

New to this year’s Bioproduction is Protein Characterisation, a co-located event focusing on protein aggregation, impurities, glycan analysis and analytical strategies. As the conference producer I thought I’d give you an insight into some of the issues mentioned during my research.

Biopharma has a host of analytical tools at its disposal, from HPLC and Mass Spectrometry, to CE and AUC. However, no one technique is enough and companies must battle with the dilemma of choosing which technique to use, when and how to use it.

The main problem is that there is no real form of standardisation, with industry left with the unenviable task of filling in the blanks – and there are a lot of them. Like all successful business the key is in the planning – choosing which technologies to outsource or bring in-house, encouraging interactions between analytical and formulation departments from the start and validating methods in line with international regulations.

Analytical managers, like those at the very top, must formulate an strategy early on, decide which technologies are needed and invest appropriately. Then, once the data is generated, turn this information into tangible results that meet both commercial and scientific end-points.

This is why sharing information at events like Bioproduction is so important; understanding what techniques are working, what aren’t and where to focus your research.  I’d be very interested to hear your opinions on this and what you feel are the main bottlenecks and challenges impacting protein characterisation. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

– Daniel Barry

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 10th, 2008 at 5:25 pm and is filed under Protein Characterisation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.