Year: 2008-09

Company: Bristol-Myers Squibb

Liaison(s): Erik Rubin, Chris Yonan

The integration of lab automation technologies with the optimization of protein purification methodologies is an evolving area within the field of protein purification. Most approaches to date use automation for the simple purification of multiple proteins in a short period of time. However, strategies that provide the ability to run many experiments in parallel for more rapid characterization of proteins need to be developed. The goal of this project was to develop strategies to carry out small-scale, parallel, automated experiments which enable the most efficient use of materials and experimental conditions to define and optimize protein purification processes at larger scales. The approach uses statistically optimal experimental design strategies to investigate the binding and elution characteristics of proteins in a variety of modern chromatography media. The results were transformed into experimental templates that readily integrate with an automated process development workflow under development at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS). A secondary objective, a preliminary financial analysis comparing the BMS automated workflow with standard process development workflows, was also achieved.. This allowed the team to define overall metrics for the efficient use of automation, which enables the development of future detailed cost-effectiveness models for the implementation of automated systems.