It is the pursuit of “facts” instead of fiction, or answers instead of “assumptions” that led Industrial Tomography Systems (ITS) to devise the Smart Column; a patented electrical resistance tomography (ERT) device designed to specifically monitor fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC) for the pharmaceutical industry.
Developed in 1982, FPLC is a process commonly used in the pharmaceutical industry to analyse and purify protein through the use of a chromatography column. The diagram below provides a brief illustration of the four key stages of FPLC.
Being able to monitor the purification process was previously thought to be the stuff of science fiction, as the only observational avenues were to monitor the chromatography column’s inlet and outlet. Seeing how the, proverbial, ‘sausage’ was made has now been made possible through the use of ERT.
Like any of ITS’s ERT monitoring systems, the Smart Column works by detecting the relative conductive properties of the mobile phase and the stationary phase. This raw data is then interpreted by back-projected software to render a tomograms in both 2D and 3D. The Smart Column’s four sensor planes provide a spatial representation of the chromatography process rendered as dynamic instantaneous images, as the still shot of the Smart Column interface illustrates below.
The successful combination of ERT with chromatography should not come as a complete surprise since it is the contrasting chemical affinities of the mobile and stationary phases that makes the chromatography protein purification process possible in the first place. It is axiomatic that chemical affinity should spawn an electrochemical dissimilarity that makes ERT possible to work in the first place.
So why do chromatographers need to have an ITS Smart Column? Simply put, an ITS Smart Column delivers unparalleled insights into column chromatography performance to enhance product purity and optimise efficiency.
Whether a chromatography column comes prepacked or is packed by the end-user, ERT’s ability to monitor and visualise the passage of the eluent through the stationary phase offers indispensable insights into the integrity of the resin packing of the stationary phase.
While the ITS Smart Column is designed to work with most industry standard chromatography columns, the key advantages of the Smart Column can be summarised as follows:
- Real-time process monitoring – instantaneous visualisation and analysis of chromatography column performance
- Resin packing integrity detection – the Smart Column is able to identify flaws in resin packing like channeling and poor distribution
- Optimisation of buffer usage – achieving optimum efficiency and reduction of waste
- Column resin optimisation – the Smart Column’s real-time insights help to achieve optimal resin packing to prevent over-packing or under-packing
Fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC) is an elegant process based on the chemical affinities of the mobile and stationary phases. However, elegance comes at a price with the cost of resin alone making FPLC an expensive undertaking – let alone the high value of the purified end-product.
It is within this context that the role of the ITS Smart Column can only be fully appreciated. Chromatography “assumptions” are not only “dangerous”, but potentially very costly as well. As with any ITS electrical tomography solution, the Smart Column’s ERT “facts” are an indispensable aid that lead directly to greater efficiencies, cost savings, and enhanced product quality. After all, why imagine when you can image in real-time.
For more information about the Smart Column, please contact the team at: sales.support@itoms.com
