Regeneron Donates Generous Gift of Protein A Resin to KGI

The ongoing partnership between Keck Graduate Institute (KGI) and Regeneron reflects the deep commitment both organizations have to ensuring students are prepared to become informed, capable, and talented professionals. As a show of support, Regeneron recently donated 50 liters of Protein A Resin to KGI, which will be an invaluable laboratory resource to students for years to come.

The resin, specifically donated to KGI’s Amgen Bioprocessing Center (ABC), was received on Tuesday, February 23, 2016. The 50 liters will help facilitate student learning through hands-on experiments in bio-separation and ongoing and future independent research projects.

George B. and Joy Rathmann Professor and Director of the Amgen Bioprocessing Center, Parviz Shamlou expressed that he and his colleagues at KGI are grateful for the donation because the high cost of this resin would have made even the purchase of expired product prohibitive for the center. The Protein A Resin is one of the most important and costly raw materials commonly used in the biotech platform processes for the manufacture of monoclonal antibodies.

Elaborating on how this product will be put to use at the center, Professor Shamlou explained, “At KGI we have a Bioseparation course which includes hand-on chromatography experiments. The Protein A provided by Regeneron will greatly enhance the quality of this course. In addition, the bioprocessing faculty team can now design, develop and run multiple independent research projects to train students on the capture step as well as, column packing and qualification, resin lifetime studies and more. The hands-on experience our students will gain from these experiments will better prepare them for careers in process development and biomanufacturing in the biopharmaceutical industry.”

Professor Shamlou also explained the donation from a long-term and institute-wide perspective. “Regeneron’s thoughtfulness will benefit multiple future generations of KGI MBS, MEng, PPC, PPM and PhD students who will be well prepared and competitive for future careers in the life science industries.”

The Amgen Bioprocessing Center is the scientific and engineering infrastructure that KGI established in 2004 with a generous donation from the Amgen Foundation to bring together resources, people, and infrastructure with the sole purpose of educating scientists and engineers to manage complex biological process scale-up. The work of the Center is highly industry focused and guided by a distinguished team of Amgen Bioprocessing Center Advisory Board (ABCAB) members. Over 90% of the Center’s research is collaborative with industry, providing a superb and unmatched platform for our students to interact with and learn from industry leaders.