Sartorius – Sartobind® Rapid A Lab

Due to its high specificity, affinity chromatography has the potential to make antibody purification very efficient. However, traditional chromatography columns require labour-intensive preparation steps and need low flow rates to achieve the specified binding capacities, contributing to long process times. Meanwhile, although chromatography membranes support higher flow rates, they can suffer from premature blocking, leading to lower antibody yields and increased research costs.

Sartobind® Rapid A Lab is a ready-for-use affinity chromatography unit that brings the state-of-the art in membrane technology to lab-scale separation workflows. Its macroporous membrane ensures that antibodies reach the Protein A ligands quickly, primarily by convective flow. As a result, faster flow rates can be used to complete a purification cycle in less than three minutes. This represents an impressive 90% time saving over chromatography columns.

The efficiency gains from using Sartobind® Rapid A Lab are not only limited to purification cycle times. For example, because the membrane is not susceptible to damage by air bubbles, there is no need to degas buffers before purification. Furthermore, Sartobind® Rapid A Lab performs equally well when operated by syringe, pump or liquid chromatography system. This level of flexibility - unmatched by other chromatography consumables due to pressure limitations - enables reliable benchtop purification with less set-up effort. Opting for equipment-free purification can also reduce water and reagent consumption by eliminating the need for the additional buffer volume required to prime a chromatography system.

In addition, the Sartobind® Rapid A membrane has a proven resistance to blocking, supporting up to 100 purification cycles over the life of a single consumable. This extended usability means that consumables can be ordered less frequently and the cost per milligram of purified antibody can be reduced by up to 95%.

Finally, when a purification process needs to be transferred to clinical and commercial production, process-scale capsules and cassettes based on the same chromatography membrane are available. This eliminates revalidation and significantly reduces process development effort, accelerating the development and commercialisation of new therapeutic antibodies.

In summary, Sartobind® Rapid A Lab has helped to truly realise the potential for efficient antibody purification. This innovative product is an ideal candidate for a Labmate Award for Excellence in recognition of its faster, more flexible and future-proof approach to purification in antibody isolation and separation workflows.