An Instrument to Determine Protein Stability for Biologics Formulations Testing

描述（申请人提供）：蛋白质治疗是生物技术和制药行业增长最快的部分，年销售额超过700亿美元。蛋白质治疗剂包括单克隆抗体、重组蛋白、嵌合蛋白和其它蛋白质受体构建体。蛋白质作为药物开发的一个主要障碍是它们以安全和稳定的形式配制。确定缓冲液、配体和赋形剂条件，使其稳定性最大化并消除蛋白质聚集，这在开发过程中至关重要，通常需要评估数百种条件。由于缺乏能够准确测量蛋白质稳定性/聚集基质的完全自动化仪器，这一耗时的任务变得更加复杂。该提案的目标是开发一种全自动的蛋白质化学变性荧光仪器，旨在测量多维蛋白质稳定性和聚集基质。与任何其他现有仪器不同，该仪器将能够自动制备和分析多达96条蛋白质变性曲线-足以完成新生物制剂的整个配方研究。在该仪器中，用户将仅需要提供蛋白质和散装制剂溶液。仪器将自动制备所有溶液，进行测量，分析数据并将结果呈现给研究者。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Protein therapeutics is the fastest growing segment in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry with annual sales totaling over $70 billion. Protein therapeutics includes monoclonal antibodies, recombinant proteins, chimeric proteins and other protein receptor constructs. A major hurdle in the development of proteins as pharmaceutical drugs is their formulation in a safe and stable form. The identification of buffer, ligand and excipient conditions that maximize their stability and eliminate protein aggregation is critical during development and often requires the evaluation of hundreds of conditions. This time-consuming task is compounded by the absence of completely automated instruments with the capability of accurately measuring the stability/aggregation matrix of a protein. The goal of this proposal is to develop a fully automated, protein chemical denaturation, fluorescence instrument aimed at measuring multi- dimensional protein stability and aggregation matrices. Unlike any other currently available instrument, this instrument will be capable of automatically preparing and analyzing up to 96 protein denaturation curves - enough to complete an entire formulations study for a new biologic. In this instrument, the user will only need to provide protein and bulk formulation solutions. The instrument will automatically prepare all solutions, perform the measurements, analyze the data and present the results to the investigator.