@article{fan_boi_lemma_lavoie_carbonell_2021, title={Iminodiacetic Acid (IDA) Cation-Exchange Nonwoven Membranes for Efficient Capture of Antibodies and Antibody Fragments}, volume={11}, ISSN={["2077-0375"]}, DOI={10.3390/membranes11070530}, abstractNote={There is strong need to reduce the manufacturing costs and increase the downstream purification efficiency of high-value therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). This paper explores the performance of a weak cation-exchange membrane based on the coupling of IDA to poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) nonwoven fabrics. Uniform and conformal layers of poly(glycidyl methacrylate) (GMA) were first grafted to the surface of the nonwovens. Then IDA was coupled to the polyGMA layers under optimized conditions, resulting in membranes with very high permeability and binding capacity. This resulted in IgG dynamic binding capacities at very short residence times (0.1–2.0 min) that are much higher than those achieved by the best cation-exchange resins. Similar results were obtained in the purification of a single-chain (scFv) antibody fragment. As is customary with membrane systems, the dynamic binding capacities did not change significantly over a wide range of residence times. Finally, the excellent separation efficiency and potential reusability of the membrane were confirmed by five consecutive cycles of mAb capture from its cell culture harvest. The present work provides significant evidence that this weak cation-exchange nonwoven fabric platform might be a suitable alternative to packed resin chromatography for low-cost, higher productivity manufacturing of therapeutic mAbs and antibody fragments.}, number={7}, journal={MEMBRANES}, author={Fan, Jinxin and Boi, Cristiana and Lemma, Solomon Mengistu and Lavoie, Joseph and Carbonell, Ruben G.}, year={2021}, month={Jul} }
 @article{lemma_boi_carbonell_2021, title={Nonwoven Ion-Exchange Membranes with High Protein Binding Capacity for Bioseparations}, volume={11}, ISSN={["2077-0375"]}, DOI={10.3390/membranes11030181}, abstractNote={This study presents the preparation and characterization of UV-grafted polybutylene terepthalate (PBT) ion exchange nonwoven membranes for chromatographic purification of biomolecules. The PBT nonwoven was functionalized with sulfonate and secondary amine for cation and anion exchange (CEX and AEX), respectively. The anion exchange membrane showed an equilibrium static binding capacity of 1300 mg BSA/g of membrane, while the cationic membranes achieved a maximum equilibrium binding capacity of over 700 mg hIgG/g of membrane. The CEX and AEX membranes resulted in dynamic binding capacities under flow conditions, with a residence time of 0.1 min, of 200 mg hIgG/mL of membrane and 55 mg BSA/mL of membrane, respectively. The selectivity of the PBT-CEX membranes was demonstrated by purifying antibodies and antibody fragments (hIgG and scFv) from CHO cell culture supernatants in a bind-an-elute mode. The purity of the eluted samples exceeded 97%, with good log removal values (LRV) for both host cell proteins (HCPs) and DNA. The PBT-AEX nonwoven membranes exhibited a DNA LRV of 2.6 from hIgG solutions in a flow-through mode with little loss of product. These results indicate that these membranes have significant potential for use in downstream purification of biologics.}, number={3}, journal={MEMBRANES}, author={Lemma, Solomon Mengistu I and Boi, Cristiana and Carbonell, Ruben G.}, year={2021}, month={Mar} }