Development of advanced adsorptive separation technology for environmental and biopharmaceutical applications

吸附和层析在分离和提纯有价值的化学和生化产品方面起着至关重要的作用。操作成本高和分离能力低仍然是将其应用于环境和生物制药分离的主要瓶颈。在过去的几年里，我的研究主要集中在开发新的可持续吸附剂和先进的基于吸附的分离工艺。在过去研究工作的基础上，拟议的研究计划旨在解决以下具有挑战性的课题：(I)开发用于选择吸附和回收贵金属的新型多孔多糖基吸附剂；(Ii)探索通过制备液相色谱分离和纯化治疗性蛋白质的新技术。生物吸附是指死亡或不活跃的生物材料从溶液中被动吸收物质的物理化学过程，是修复重金属或回收贵金属的一种很有前途的技术。尽管生物吸附剂的制备和表征已有大量研究报道，但由于缺乏构建结构定义的多孔性生物吸附剂的方法和吸附机理的不确定性，生物吸附剂在工业环境中的应用尚未成功。本研究旨在开发新型多孔离子印迹壳聚糖凝胶小球和多糖/无机复合材料，以选择性地吸附多金属溶液中的贵金属离子。高效液相色谱分离纯化蛋白质已成为蛋白质研究和生产中最有效、应用最广泛的技术之一。然而，固体基质的高成本和低结合能力严重阻碍了治疗性蛋白质的大规模纯化的发展。为了应对这一挑战，本研究将探索一种准连续亲和层析系统来纯化单抗，这是一类非常成功的治疗产品。拟议的研究将通过系统研究产生新的知识，以促进治疗性蛋白质制备性纯化的综合成本降低策略。拟议的研究将产生金属离子生物吸附和生物药物分离领域的新技术和变革性专业知识。开发具有成本效益的贵金属回收技术将有助于建立一条更可持续的途径，重新利用这些有价值的元素。治疗性蛋白质制备性纯化的研究进展仍将是新生物药物开发的主要驱动力。

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.