The Korea Institute of Ceramic Engineering (KICET)and Technology has unveiled a groundbreaking system for purifying antibody drugs more rapidly and cost-effectively, as announced on Wednesday.
This innovative technology, developed through a collaborative effort between Dr. Kim Sung Hyun, researcher Park Hee Sun, and Dr. Woo Jae Sung from the Institute for Basic Science, introduces a column-free antibody purification system that leverages Tangential Flow Filtration (TFF). By eliminating the need for the expensive purification columns traditionally used in antibody drug production, this approach promises significant reductions in both purification time and costs.
Antibody drugs are renowned for their exceptional efficacy in targeting specific disease-causing agents within the body. However, their complex and costly production processes often lead to high prices for these medications. The purification stage, crucial for obtaining clean antibodies, accounts for a substantial portion of overall production costs.
The current industry standard, known as Protein A column purification, accounts for roughly 35% of total production costs. This method not only imposes a significant financial burden but also involves time-consuming processes.
To tackle these challenges head-on, the research team engineered a novel fusion protein (ZZ-CSQ) with selective antibody-binding properties and integrated it into the Tangential Flow Filtration method.
Tangential Flow Filtration operates by allowing liquid to flow tangentially across a filter surface, effectively removing impurities while minimizing clogging. This technique’s capacity for large-scale processing has made it a staple in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
The newly developed purification system has demonstrated remarkable results, yielding antibodies with over 97% purity at approximately four times the speed of conventional methods. Moreover, it achieved a dramatic reduction in problematic impurities, reducing them by more than 12-fold during purification.
The research team has confirmed the scalability of this technology from laboratory settings to mass production processes, anticipating its potential application across the entire antibody drug industry in the near future.
Dr. Kim Sung Hyun expressed optimism about the technology’s impact, noting that the commercialization of this innovation could significantly reduce antibody drug production costs, ultimately boosting the competitiveness of our domestic biotechnology sector.
This breakthrough research, supported by the Samsung Future Technology Development Project, has been published in the prestigious international journal Separation and Purification Technology, which has an impact factor of 9.0 and specializes in separation and purification.