Development of affordable at-line surface plasmon resonance technology for critical quality attribute assessment of complex biologics

表面等离子体共振（SPR）是一种使用金属表面的折射率的光学测量来检测分析物与该表面上的受体的结合的技术。一个典型的传感器是基于一个玻璃支持表面涂有金膜。然后受体结合到金膜上。照射在金膜底面的光以临界角反射并被传感器接收。与表面结合的分子影响临界角，因此可以测量结合分析物的浓度。作为单一糖型单克隆抗体生产网络（MabNet）的一部分，Aucoin教授正在研究影响动物细胞培养中产生的单克隆抗体糖基化模式的开发过程。已知糖基化模式显著影响抗体结合不同靶标的能力。他还在开发可用于疫苗的病毒和病毒样颗粒的生产工艺。这两种类型的复杂生物制剂都需要通过它们与其他分子结合的能力来表征。帮助开发一种负担得起的SPR设备，例如由位于滑铁卢的初创公司Nicoya Lifesciences生产的SPR设备，肯定会被证明是一种非常宝贵的过程分析工具（PAT），它将有助于监测重要治疗生物分子（即治疗性抗体，病毒和病毒样颗粒）的关键质量属性（CQA）。

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is a technique that uses optical measurement of the refractive index of a metal surface to detect binding of an analyte to receptors on this surface. A typical sensor is based off a glass support surface coated with a gold film. Receptors are then bound to the gold film. Light shone on the underside of the gold film is reflected at a critical angle and received by a sensor. Molecules binding to the surface affect the critical angle and therefore the concentration of binding analyte can be measured. As part of the network on the Production of Single Glycoform Monoclonal Antibodies (MabNet), Professor Aucoin is looking at developing processes that influence the glycosylation pattern of monoclonal antibodies produced in animal cell culture. The glycosylation pattern is known to influence dramatically the ability of an antibody to bind to different targets. He is also developing processes for the production of viruses and virus-like particles that can be used in vaccines. Both of these types of complex biologics need to be characterized through their ability to bind to other molecules. Helping develop an affordable SPR device such as the one being produced by Nicoya Lifesciences, a Waterloo-based start-up company, will certainly prove to be an invaluable process analytical tool (PAT) which will help in the monitoring of a critical quality attribute (CQA) of important therapeutic biomolecules (namely therapeutic antibodies, viruses and virus-like particles).