Prepping for PREP
Symposium Chair Giorgio Carta tells us what we can expect from PREP 2017 in Philadelphia
Tell us about PREP...
The International Symposium, Exhibit & Workshops on Preparative and Process Chromatography (PREP) was founded by the late Georges Guiochon in 1985. By providing a dynamic forum where scientists, engineers, and suppliers of media, equipment, and technology can come together to comprehensively discuss all aspects of preparative chromatography, PREP helped lay the foundation of the tremendous growth we’ve seen in this area over the past 30 years. Preparative/process chromatography is now used extensively in the manufacture of fine chemicals, natural products, amino acids, sugars, pharmaceuticals, and a whole host of biotechnology products, including therapeutic proteins, virus for gene delivery, virus-like particles for vaccines, and even whole cells.
Why a dedicated forum for preparative chromatography?
Analytical and preparative/process chromatography both use a stationary phase and a mobile phase, and in both, the separation is driven by the partitioning of components between the two phases. Yet the scope is very different, with analytical applications focusing on sensitivity and speed, while preparative/process applications focus on yield and productivity. The higher load requirements of preparative chromatography mean that predicting and optimizing performance is much more challenging, and process design has to meet more stringent constraints, such as column pressure.
What is your goal as Chair?
When I took over from Georges a few years ago, I wanted to expand the scope of the event to not only serve as a driving force for scientific progress in preparative and process chromatography, but also as a major technology showcase, and an avenue for advanced education and training in chromatographic process development and design.
What will be the key themes at PREP 2017?
Pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical applications will play a central role, with increasing emphasis on process understanding and improving manufacturing through more effective designs and continuous processing.
Sessions include:
- Industrial case studies in protein chromatography
- Mechanistic understanding and modeling
- Bioprocesses
- Stationary phases - bioapplications
- Stationary phases - RP HPLC
- Protein A and affinity chromatography
- Preparative chromatography in drug discovery, development, and manufacture
- Continuous and integrated processing
- Supercritical fluid chromatography
- Column and molecule-surface interaction characterization
- Natural products applications and CPC
- Monoliths and alternatives to packed beds
- Virus, VLPs, and cells
- Process modeling and design
Final thoughts?
The event is co-located with the International Symposium on Separations of Proteins, Peptides and Polynucleotides (ISPPP; July 19–21), with a joint day (July 19) and opportunities for networking throughout the week.
PREP 2017 will be held July 16–19, 2017, at Loews Hotel on Market Street, in downtown Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Visit www.PREPsymposium.org.
After studying biology at Imperial College London, I got my start in biomedical publishing as a commissioning editor for healthcare journals, and I’ve spent my career covering everything from early-stage research to clinical medicine.
