Automatic purification of monoclonal antibodies

Purification has become the rate limiting step in the development and production of protein-based products, especially for monoclonal antibodies. An example of a fully integrated low/medium pressure chromatograph is presented. The MabLab is driven by expert software and it characterizes an unknown antibody in about five hours, and when large amounts of antibody containing fluid are available, it runs production cycles. The purification of the antibody proceeds unattended and with an increased speed, by using the data of the characterization run, and a step elution pattern.