Characterization and design of chemically selective cationic displacers using a robotic high-throughput screen

A robotic high-throughput displacer screen was developed and employed to identify chemically selective displacers for several protein pairs in cation exchange chromatography. This automated screen enabled the evaluation of a wide range of experimental conditions in a relatively short period of time. Displacers were evaluated at multiple concentrations for these protein pairs, and DC-50 plots were constructed. Selectivity pathway plots were also constructed and different regimes were established for selective and exclusive separations. Importantly, selective displacement was found to be conserved for multiple protein pairs, demonstrating the technique to be applicable for a range of protein systems. Although chemically selective displacers were able to separate protein pairs that had similar retention in ion exchange but different surface hydrophobicities, they were not able to distinguish protein pairs with similar surface hydrophobicities. This corroborates that displacer-protein hydrophobic interactions play an important role for this class of selective displacers. Important functional group moieties were established and efficient displacers were identified. These results demonstrate that the design of chemically selective displacers requires a delicate balance between the abilities to displace proteins from the resin and to bind to a selected protein. The use of robotic screening of displacers will enable the extension of chemically selective displacement chromatography beyond hydrophobic displacer-protein interactions to other secondary interactions and more selective displacement systems.