Incorporation of automated buffer exchange empowers high-throughput protein and plasmid purification for downstream uses

• Published in: SLAS technology 2023-08, Vol.28 (4), p.243-250
• Main Authors: Kates, Patrick A., Cook, Jordan N., Ghan, Ryan, Nguyen, Huey J., Sitasuwan, Pongkwan, Lee, L. Andrew
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2472-6303; 2472-6311
• DOI: 10.1016/j.slast.2023.01.005

•Pipette tip-based (IN-tip) buffer exchange reduces parallel sample processing time.•Automation of low endotoxin “miniprep” scale plasmid purification.•Automated buffer exchange expands available user applications post traditional affinity and ion exchange workflows.•Combined protein purification workflow leaves proteins in assay- and formulation-ready buffers of end user's choice. The continued acceleration of time-to-market product development and rising demand for biotherapeutics have hastened the need for higher throughput within the biopharmaceutical industry. Automated liquid handlers (ALH) are increasingly popular due to flexible programming that enables processing of multiple samples with an array of functions. This flexibility is useful in streamlining research that requires chromatographic procedures to achieve product purity for downstream analysis. However, purification of biologics often requires additional off-deck buffer exchange steps due to undesirable elution conditions such as high acid or high salt content. Expanding the capability of ALHs to perform purification in sequence with buffer exchange would, therefore, increase workflow efficiency by eliminating the need for manual intervention, thus expediting sample preparation. Here we demonstrate two different automated purifications using pipet-based dispersive solid-phase extraction (dSPE). The first is an affinity purification of His-tagged proteins from bacterial lysate. The second is an anion-exchange purification of plasmid DNA. Both methods are followed by buffer exchange performed by an ALH. Percent recoveries for the three purified recombinant proteins ranged from 51 ± 1.2 to 86 ± 10%. The yields were inversely correlated to starting sample load and protein molecular weight. Yields for plasmid purification ranged between 11.4 ± 0.8 and 13.7 ± 0.9 µg, with the largest plasmid providing the highest yield. Both programs were rapid, with protein purification taking