SBIR Phase I: Spiral Countercurrent Chromatography for Biotechnology

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project focuses on a new design of a spiral flow-through separation coil for planetary centrifuge chromatographs that are already commercialized for natural products and synthetic small molecule purification. This scientific and engineering project will extend the advantageous high resolution, solid support-free, highly scaleable process to the biotechnology field. Success in purification of high molecular weight compounds by countercurrent chromatography will lower the manufacturing costs of biotechnology products, including therapeutics. Improvement in the separation process for the purification of more complex therapeutic products is needed in the industry. An all-liquid process that can purify in high yield, compounds in any solvent system designed for their solubility is extended to the larger MW compounds, including biological molecules. The proposed design retains the more viscous and heavy two-phase solvent systems that are suitable for proteins, peptides and particles, and prevent denaturation - thereby enabling the recovery of high activity.