The process of macromolecular characterisation is crucial to the challenge of designing and controlling the organisation of macromolecular materials to achieve the desired functionalities during drug development.
The DAWN EOS detector measures molar mass, the chemical union of two identical molecules (dimerization) and glycosylation (the process of adding glycosyl groups to a protein to form a glycoprotein) of two antibody products using multi-angle light scattering (MALS).
MALS is a non-invasive technique for characterising macromolecules and a wide range of particles in solution. In contrast to most methods for characterisation, it does not require outside calibration standards.
Current methods involve the estimation of these quantities all of the time. But when these products that are injected or injested, more accurate method of quantifying these measurements are needed. Molar mass and size are physical characteristics crucial for healthcare products.
Wyatt's instruments provide information about molecular conformation, polydispersity, and branching ratios without making assumptions, as MALS measurements are absolute, direct, and non destructive. While comparable techniques such as mass spectrometry can achieve characterisation, it is not of the molecule in solution.
In the latest application, antibodies were fractionated using size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) and characterised online using the DAWN EOS detector, Optilab DRI, and HP1100 UV detectors.
Wyatt's application demonstrates that SEC combined with MALS, plus a UV and an RI detector, is an effective system for characterising properties of antibody products. The combination can readily determine absolute molar masses and levels of aggregation to optimise the binding of the engineered antibody to the target cell or molecule.
The instrument makes it suitable for scientists interested in characterising macromolecules typically working in pharmaceutical, biotechnology, chemical, petrochemical, academic and government research labs.
A spokeswoman for Wyatt Technology explained to DrugResearcher.com why molecular characterisation was essential in drug discovery:
"You can never really know your molecules unless you have a complete biophysical understanding of them. The DAWN and DynaPro instruments enable scientists to characterise the solutions properties of their molecules in order to see how they behave."
Wyatt becomes the only company to offer instruments in light scattering to measure molar masses and sizes without making assumptions about the underlying molecules. As it is better to fractionate the molecules before detection with the DAWN Multi Angle Light Scattering (MALS) instruments, the detectors can be connected (DAWN EOS, miniDAWN Tristar, WyattQELS, Optilab rEX, ViscoStar) in series following chromatographic separation after any conventional HPLC/FPLC/SEC/GPC or FFF.
Wyatt claims the DAWN EOS is the only multi-angle light scattering (MALS) detector capable of determining radius and molar mass results simultaneously. It is able to calculate masses directly from the variation of the light scattering pattern.
The spokeswoman also mentioned the state of the market commenting that it had grown over the past few years. This was due to advanced research in pharmaceutics and biotechnology. Most of the molecules of interest in these fields are macromolecules like proteins, hyaluronic acid and haemoglobin, not to mention nanoparticles like liposomes or viruses, which can be used as drug-delivery vehicles.