Rapid, high throughput preformulation with Avacta’s Optim® 1000

Publication date: 23 October 2012
Author: kdm communications limited

Avacta Analytical’s Optim® 1000 – a unique high throughput, micro-volume protein analysis and characterisation system – is proving a valuable asset to scientists at the Macromolecule and Vaccine Stabilization Center (MVSC), University of Kansas, USA. Professor C. Russell Middaugh explained: “Conventional analytical techniques used in preformulation, stability and formulation studies rely on methods that extrapolate partial data on slow and labour intensive instrumentation, making them incompatible with high throughput measurements and tight development timelines. We have developed a faster and more comprehensive approach, which depends on the measurement of all potential variables. The results are then processed mathematically using specially developed software, and are represented visually using empirical phase diagrams.”

“Ideally, a replicate series of results is acquired for each parameter and, although a variety of instruments can be used for individual measurements, this type of equipment tends to rely on relatively time-consuming processes and can generally handle only low throughputs. Sample volume is also an issue, since many conventional techniques require large amounts of the target molecule. The Optim 1000 provides rapid, multi-modal analysis of ultra-low sample volumes at high throughputs, precisely the kind of replicate measurements we need to generate data in a timely manner. Combining multiple technologies in a single instrument is already making in-roads into preformulation and formulation studies, and this approach is proving a real asset to researchers involved in the drug development process.”