The collaboration aims to help gene therapy companies streamline their downstream purification processes, says Alpha Teknova and Sartorius BIA Separations.

Teknova, a manufacturer of reagents for research, development, and commercialization of vaccines, therapies, and molecular diagnostics has partnered with BIA Separations – part of Sartorius  after being acquired  for $423 million in October 2020.

Sartorius BIA Separations’ adeno-associated virus (AAV) platform, which has been designed to improve the separation of viral particles and Teknova’s buffer solutions developed to expand capsid enrichment, has enabled the companies to conduct a design of experiment (DOE) to create a screening kit with buffer formulations that advance purity and consistency when used with the BIA CIMmultus QA monolith.

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A spokesperson for Teknova told BioProcess Insider that Satorius BIA Separations’ “Convective Interaction Media (CIM) technology is unique due to its ability to perform rapid chromatographic processes by convective mass transport.”

“The high flow rates coupled with high capacity, good resolution, and reduced pressure allow for a large number of experiments to be conducted in a short time period. This made the CIM columns an attractive and appropriate technology to utilize for the DOE work performed with Teknova. The chemistry associated with empty/full separation through ion exchange is based on strong anion exchange columns, a well-established platform utilized in downstream processing of AAV. The chemistry applied to the CIM technology, however, is what makes Bia Separations’ proprietary platform exemplary for the AAV polishing step.”

They added: “Teknova’s AEX buffer screening kit is designed to help gene therapy developers working with the AAV2 serotype to quickly determine which custom equilibration and elution buffers work best for their purification workflow.”

According to both parties, this will allow gene therapy companies focusing on AAV to receive the necessary consumables and a protocol that can streamline and advance the downstream processing workflow. In turn, this could enable breakthrough discoveries at a faster rate.

When using their combined methods, Teknova and Sartorius BIA Separations said they will continue to develop data representing improvements in AAV purification.

The spokesperson said there is no time limit to the partnership “and both Teknova and Sartorius BIA Separations are committed to sharing and publishing the current findings of their robust design of experiments (DOE) using AAV2 and AA8 serotypes, and we intend to continue developing data, including the possibility of analyzing additional serotypes or viral vector platforms.”