Automated technology for fast protein sample preparation to be co-marketed

Written by Alice O'Hare, Future Science Group
Chromatography MS (LC–MS/MS, HRMS, IMS) News Sample preparation

Perfinity and Thermo Fisher to collaborate on automated system.

Perfinity, a biotech company based at Purdue Research Park (IN, USA), has recently signed agreements with Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. to co-market an automated system for protein sample preparation and analysis.

The system will incorporate the expertise of both companies – with Perfinity offering the automated sample preparation system, and Thermo Fisher offering LC–MS instrumentation. The automated system offers a much faster turnaround time for the time-consuming trypsin step that must be followed prior to MS analysis of peptides – reducing this from an average of 18 hours to less than 2 minutes.

Robert Ellis, Chief Executive Officer at Perfinity, explained the importance of such technology in pharmaceutical bioprocessing, “Pharmaceutical manufacturers can not wait for 24 hours to monitor the purity of each batch of protein-based product. When proteins oxidize, things can go bad quickly, and this is very costly. We developed our automated sample preparation platform to generate results quickly enough to let customers protect the value of each batch before it’s too late. Now, with the Thermo Scientific LC and MS instruments, we offer a complete system from automated sample preparation through data reporting.”

Based on Perfinity’s trypsin columns, the system will incorporate three columns, alongside the automation elements. This will be linked with Thermo Scientific UltiMate 3000 UHPLC systems and, depending on customer’s requirements, a choice of Orbitrap-based hybrid or triple quadrupole mass spectrometers.

Patrick Bennett, Thermo Fisher’s director of marketing for the pharmaceutical industry, commented on the collaboration, “A major goal at Thermo Fisher is to create efficiency and productivity throughout the biopharmaceutical value chain, and Perfinity’s approach to in-process analysis meshes nicely with these plans.”

Source: Perfinity Biosciences Inc. and Thermo Fisher Scientific sign agreement.