Development of advanced adsorptive separation technology for environmental and biopharmaceutical applications

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Adsorption and chromatography play a critical role in separating and purifying valuable chemical and biochemical products. High cost of operation and low separation capacity remain the major bottlenecks in their implementation to environmental and biopharmaceutical separations. My research in the past several years has focused on developing new sustainable adsorbents and advanced adsorption-based separation processes. Building on the strengths of past research efforts, the proposed research program aims to address the challenging topics of (i) developing new porous polysaccharide-based adsorbents for selective adsorption and recovery of precious metals; and (ii) exploring new techniques for isolation and purification of therapeutic proteins by preparative liquid chromatography. Biosorption, a physicochemical process defined as the passive uptake of substances from solutions by dead or inactive biological materials, is a promising technology for remediation of heavy metals or recovery of precious metals. Although numerous studies on the fabrication and characterization of biosorbents have been reported, application of biosorbents in an industrial context has not yet been successful due to the lack of methods to construct structurally-defined porous biosorbents and uncertainty of adsorption mechanisms. The proposed research aims to develop new porous ion-imprinted chitosan gel beads and polysaccharide/inorganic composites to selectively adsorb precious metal ions from polymetallic solutions. Protein separation and purification by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has become one of the most effective and widely used techniques for protein research and production. However, the high cost and low binding capacity of solid matrices significantly hinder the development of large-scale purification of therapeutic proteins. To tackle this challenge, a quasi-continuous affinity chromatographic system will be explored in this research to purify monoclonal antibodies, a highly successful class of therapeutic products. The proposed research will generate new knowledge through systematic studies to facilitate integrated cost reduction strategies for preparative purification of therapeutic proteins. The proposed research will result in new technologies and transformative expertise in fields of biosorption of metal ions and biopharmaceutical separation. Development of cost-effective technologies to recover precious metals will help to build a more sustainable pathway for reusing these valuable elements. Research progress in preparative purification of therapeutic proteins will remain a major driver for the development of new biopharmaceuticals.