Modern medicine has drastically increased the life span of our population, yet the cost of health care is very high, and has risen drastically over the past decade. Many Americans struggle with their monthly cost for prescription drugs. The production of pharmaceuticals is expensive, and a large portion of this production cost can be attributed to purification and isolation of a particular active component. The aim of this CAREER project is to develop a new method for purification of biologically-derived active components that increases selectivity while maintaining the activity of the drug, thereby decreasing the cost of drug purification.

This project is aimed towards the development of a purification technology tailored for labile therapeutics, which are high-value drug biomolecules that rapidly and irreversibly lose their activity outside a narrow range of conditions in solution (such as pH or ionic strength). The project will develop a single aqueous solvent purification process that is controlled by external stimuli, e.g. light and temperature, relatively mild stimulations that will retain the activity of the biomolecules. New ligands will be developed that selectively captures two target biomolecules under visible light, or ambient temperature, and releases the drug in dark or cold. The newly developed ligands will be characterized in depth to allow for further product optimization and finally, validation of the technique by purifying target proteins from blood plasma and cell culture fluids. The use of such simple, external switches to trigger the capture and release of the product holds great promise to considerably reduce the process footprint as compared to current setups. The use of a single aqueous solvent not only ensures product bioactivity, but also enables significant process intensification. The research entails the development of tools that have the potential to stimulate other research areas, and lead to the discovery of novel ?smart? materials and diagnostics that will have a positive impact on the quality of life of future generations. One graduate student will be trained in this project, a high school teacher will be involved in the laboratory work, and the PI will leverage his appointment in a biomanufacturing education and training center to interact with local biotech industries and commercial the intellectual property from this work.

Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
2017-08-15
Budget End
2022-07-31
Support Year
Fiscal Year
2016
Total Cost
$521,930
Indirect Cost
Name
North Carolina State University Raleigh
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Raleigh
State
NC
Country
United States
Zip Code
27695