Capillary-Channeled Polymer Fibers: Chemistries and Structures for Protein Separations and Analytics

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With support from the Chemical Measurement and Imaging Program (Division of Chemistry), Professor R. Kenneth Marcus, his collaborators and their students at Clemson University are developing and characterizing capillary-channeled polymer (C-CP) fibers as stationary phases for rapid processing of biomacromolecules. C-CP materials are amenable to a wide range of column formats (microbore to preparative) and offer advantages for macromolecular separations relative to traditional porous-bead, membrane, and monolithic stationary phases, including low flow resistance, minimization of size-exclusion effects, much higher mass transfer rates, and high mobile phase velocities (not necessarily volume flow rates) and gradient rates without sacrificing chromatographic performance. Proposed studies are directed at exploiting the basic characteristics of C-CP fiber columns to affect highly productive and selective separations in the realm of protein analytics. This work is necessarily interdisciplinary, involving cooperation between analytical and biochemistries, chemical engineering, and textile science researchers. A two-pronged approach will be taken. The first research area will focus on modification of surface chemistries to affect high levels of selectivity. The modifications will be evaluated not only for their chemical selectivity, but also the ligand utilization efficiency, susceptibility to non-specific binding, and robustness in terms of process cycling (including caustic clean in place procedures). In all cases, performance metrics will be directly compared to columns packed with commercially available stationary phases. The second research area looks beyond chromatographic column structures, involving the characterization and optimization of the hydrodynamic aspects of depletion/capture columns and micropipette tip constructs and how they affect performance of in-line and discrete sample protein processing, respectively.Just as scientists catalog all the genes in an organism's DNA to study its biological function, they are also developing protein analytics to eventually be able to catalog the varying collections of proteins an organism uses to carry out its functions. Complete, accurate protein catalogs are critical to the development of more effective pharmaceuticals, diagnostic tools and the advance of molecular medicine. They rely heavily on efficient separations technology because biological samples are so complex. This work conducted by Prof. Marcus will advance protein analytics by developing separations technology that can analyze more complex samples more accurately in less time. The studies involve a collaborative effort between research groups from the Department of Chemistry and the School of Materials Science and Engineering, both of which are affiliated with the Clemson University Center for Advanced Engineering of Fibers and Films (CAEFF). Collaborations with federal laboratories are also planned. Successful completion of the work may lead to new commercial ventures in the textile and pharmaceutical industries in South Carolina and elsewhere. CAEFF programs expose graduate students to science and research philosophies across the science/engineering interface. The low cost and simplicity of constructing C-CP fiber columns will allow their use in newly designed undergraduate and graduate laboratory experiments illustrating the basic principles of protein chromatography.