Collaboratively Advancing Compact Liquid Chromatography for Supporting Process Understanding and Automating Analytical Instrumentation in Pharmaceutical and Biopharmaceutical R&D

Description:
The ability to obtain data rich information of a chemical process at near real-time speeds is critical to fully understand and control a given procedure. The gold standard in measuring all components involved in a complex process is chromatography. Traditional chromatographic approaches require tedious steps such as manual sampling, sample quench and/or dilution, and potential lengthy LC runtimes. Ultimately these steps limit the frequency of analysis and result in low data rates that may constrain full process understanding. Recent advancements have been made in automating high-throughput and unattended sample probing and preparation. However, one downside to the current platform capabilities is the footprint of the LC used in conjunction with the online setups. As such the Enabling Technologies Consortium (ETC) collaboratively advanced a compact LC which is approximately the size of a shoebox. Eight pharmaceutical companies partnered with a vendor to develop a new beta compact LC which was subsequently tested in all member companies’ labs. The compact design allows for a LC to be placed in a hood rather than near it, which not only clears space in the lab, but allows for shorter sampling distances and improved analytical outputs. Additionally, the compact LC requires a very small fraction of the mobile phase used with traditional LC leading to a safer and greener option. Finally, the compact LC is a more affordable chromatograph and is front-end agnostic. As such, it has offered improved means to couple automation with online LC. Newly developed capabilities (hardware & software) of the compact LC and results of the interlaboratory testing will be discussed. Also, several examples will be presented that demonstrate the use of compact LC with automated systems (e.g., microfluidic sampling devices, automated forced degradation systems, and tablet processing robots), essentially furthering their scope to create complete “sample in – data out” systems.

Speaker: Zachary Breitbach - AbbVie, Inc.
Zachary Breitbach obtained his BS degree from Clarke College in 2005 and his PhD from The University of Texas at Arlington in 2010. He served as a Research Scientist at UTA where he developed new chiral stationary phases for HPLC, SFC and GC. He also co-founded and served as a consultant to AZYP, LLC regarding new chemical separation media focused on chiral and HILIC HPLC separations. In 2016, he transitioned to an industrial career at AbbVie, developing new technologies and methods to support drug product development. He has published over 70 peer-reviewed research articles, has been cited over 1400 times, holds 3 patents related to the development of materials for chemical separations, and has presented research at numerous domestic and international conferences. He is the 2017 ACS Satinder Ahuja Awardee for Young Investigators in Separation Science, was named LCGC's 2018 Emerging Leader Award in Chromatography, and is listed in the Analytical Scientists Top 40 Under 40.