Automated Online-Sampling Multidimensional Liquid Chromatography with Feedback-Control Capability as a Framework for Real-Time Monitoring of mAb Critical Quality Attributes in Multiple Bioreactors

Real-time monitoring of biopharmaceutical reactors is becoming increasingly important as the processes become more complex. During the continuous manufacturing of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), the desired mAb product is continually created and collected over a 30 day process, where there can be changes in quality over that time. Liquid chromatography (LC) is the workhorse instrumentation capable of measuring mAb concentration as well as quality attributes such as aggregation, charge variants, oxidation, etc. However, traditional offline sampling is too infrequent to fully characterize bioprocesses, and the typical time from sample generation to data analysis and reporting can take weeks. To circumvent these limitations, an automated online sampling multidimensional workflow was developed to enable streamlined measurements of mAb concentration, aggregation, and charge variants. This analytical framework also facilitates automated data export for real-time analysis of up to six bioreactors, including feedback-controlling capability using readily available LC technology. This workflow increases the data points per bioreactor, improving the understanding of each experiment while also reducing the data turnaround time from weeks to hours. Examples of effective real-time analyses of mAb critical quality attributes are illustrated, showing substantial throughput improvements and accurate results while minimizing labor and manual intervention.