To kick off our series of insights from CE Pharm and Mass Spec 2016, we’d like to spotlight Dr. Carly Daniels and her co-authors from Pfizer, Inc. who presented an intriguing poster titled “Chip-Based CE-MS for Biotherapeutic Characterization and Analysis.”
Dr. Daniels’ presentation covered several application areas. The impressive range of data showed the broad impact that microfluidic CE technology can have in some of BioPharma’s most challenging areas including intact protein analysis, analysis of modifications and variants, and how those can be impacted by production processes.
The poster presentation discussed separation of intact monoclonal antibodies by charge variants and direct electrospray into the mass spec. Using the CE-MS data, the group was able to identify a Glu->Gln amino acid sequence modification in an antibody population, and conclusively identified sequence modifications.
The group showed a great example investigating changes to the production process. They were able to characterize different abundances of basic variants originating with the process. In our experience, these are tough challenges to solve with alternate technologies.
In addition, the presentation contrasted peptide mapping analyses conducted with the microfluidic CE-ESI chips as a front end for the mass spec with results from the optimized liquid chromatography (LC) methods previously used as standard. Analyses with the microfluidic chips achieved similar sequence coverage to the LC-MS analyses but achieved a 10-fold decrease in analysis time. The analysis could be completed with 30x less sample injected compared to LC runs.
A job well done to Dr. Daniels and her co-authors! This great work was very well received at the show!
By: Erin Redman, Senior Research Scientist at 908 Devices