There are a wide variety of protein-based drugs that are used to treat various serious conditions. Insulin is perhaps the most well-known example, which is used for life-saving treatments for diabetes. New antibody treatments also fall into this category, as do various vaccines.
A significant cost element in the production of these treatments is the purification step, wherein the desired protein is separated from the contents of the bioreactor it was produced in. A new nanotech discovery from MIT could revolutionize this area, making these drugs cheaper and easier to produce.
The Old Ways
Using chromatography to separate proteins is expensive and complex, however, it is considered the most viable current method for industrial production of many pharmaceuticals. Credit: Mararie, CC-BY-SA-2.0
Traditional protein purification relies heavily on chromatography, a method that separates proteins based on their size. The need for specialized materials in chromatography, however, substantially drives up the cost of manufacturing.
Chromatography, at its core, is a physical separation technique that separates components between two phases: the stationary phase (a solid or a liquid supported on a solid) and the mobile phase (a liquid or a gas). In the context of protein purification for drug manufacture, chromatography typically takes advantage of differences in properties like protein size, charge, or binding affinity to selectively separate the target protein from other biological material present in the bioreactor. The protein mixture is passed through a column packed with the stationary phase, and different proteins interact with the stationary phase to different extents, thus moving at varying speeds and emerging from the column at ..
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