FAQ - Natural extracts and biomolecules purification
FAQs
Do you want to learn more about Natural extracts and biomolecules purification?
Axplora is a leading contract manufacturer with more than 30 years’ experience. Purifying biomolecules, including peptides, proteins, and natural extracts, requires a high degree of technical expertise and state-of-the-art technologies to deliver a robust and effective process leading to a high-purity product. Axplora is well-placed to address the challenges involved in complex purification.
In this FAQ, our experts share their knowledge and answer all your questions about:
- General information about Natural extracts and Biomolecules
- Information about development, scale-up, transfer, stationary phase, equipment, and more!
If you need more informations, download this FAQ!
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Biomolecules are a wide variety of compounds present in living organisms and essential for various biological processes. They can be “small” or “large” and play crucial roles in live organisms’ structure, function, and regulation. The industry admits that small molecules have an MW of less than 900-1 000 KDa, and large molecules have an MW of more than 900-1 000 KDa.
There are examples of biomolecules:
- Proteins: composed of amino acids, proteins serve various cell functions, including structural support, catalyzing reactions (enzymes), and signaling.
- Nucleic Acids: These include DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) and RNA (ribonucleic acid), which carry genetic information and are involved in the synthesis of proteins.
- Lipids: Lipids are diverse molecules that include fats, phospholipids, and steroids. They are essential for energy storage, membrane structure, and signaling.
- Glucides:are essentially cyclic hydrates of carbon (CN(H2O)N) but can also wear N, S, P. The cycles are usually 5 or 6 atoms long and form macromolecules when cycles bind together.
- Secondary Metabolites (such as terpenes, phenolic compounds, alkaloids, etc.): intermediates or end Active Ingredients, generally small molecules.
The focal point lies in the fact that they always originate from complex environments containing either very distinct or very closely related compounds. Stemming from the ‘natural,’ the composition of those complex environments is subject to variations. Particularly in the case of large biomolecules, they are generally not that stable, and are subject to bioburden contamination.
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Purifying biomolecules means separating them from other cellular components and related impurities to obtain a high and reproducible purity/quality, called the Down Stream Processing (DSP).
The DSP usually involves several orthogonal chromatography mechanisms combined with tangential flow filtration (TFF) to tackle the diversity of impurities as well as viral filtration and bioburden filtration when needed.
Chromatography offers high purification performance (high purity and high yield) and a linear scale-up and, so it is well-suited to biomolecules purification.
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The DSP is developed to remove:
- Process-related impurities such as DNA, host cell proteins (HCP), affinity chromatography ligands, solvents, detergents, etc.
- Product-related impurities such as truncated forms, metabolites, precursors, etc.
- Biosafety: bioburden, endotoxins, virus