Determination of chromatography conditions

1. A method for determination of chromatography conditions for separating a biomolecule from a liquid sample, the method comprising,

a) selecting a number of experiments (N experiments) using design of experiments (DoE);

b) performing a number of chromatographic runs (M chromatography runs) for said N experiments on a chromatography column with in-line conditioning of at least two gradients of two selected quality measures, wherein paths and curvatures of the gradients are designed so that data points in the DoE are close to the paths of the gradients to obtain N elution fractions during the M chromatography runs, one for each of the DoE points passed by;

c) analyzing a purity and yield of the N fractions to obtain responses data;

d) using the responses data to train a DoE regression model; and,

e) using the DoE regression model to predict isocratic chromatography conditions for said biomolecule;

wherein the two selected quality measures are orthogonal, and

wherein the number of chromatography runs (M) is less than the number of experiments of DoE(N).

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein step a) comprises

i) preliminarily selecting said N experiments using the DoE and

ii) adjusting experimental parameters of said N experiments to fall on at least two gradients of two selected quality measures.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein at least one of said at least two gradients is a curved gradient.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein at least two of said at least two gradients are curved gradients.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the quality measures are selected from the group consisting of type of chromatography resin; loading volume, wash volume, elution volume, binding buffer; elution buffer; surface determinants of the biomolecule and impurities present in the liquid sample.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the in-line conditioning comprises conditioning of a liquid sample to a predetermined pH and/or conductivity.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the conditioning comprising, determining a relative component proportions of at least one each of: a buffer; an acid or a base; a solvent; and optionally, a salt, for providing a liquid mixture of pre-defined pH and ionic strength,

wherein the relative component proportions are determined using equation of Debye-Hückel,

wherein an ion size parameter a in the Debye-Hückel equation is determined as a weighted mean ion size of all species contributing to an ionic strength of the liquid mixture, and

wherein an ionic strength of each species is used as weighting parameter.

8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the relative component proportions are determined using an iterative procedure.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the iterative procedure comprises:

(a) determining the relative component proportions wherein a pre-defined ionic strength of the liquid mixture is addressed to the species according to a pre-defined distribution among the species;

(b) on the basis of the relative component proportions determined in the preceding step, calculating the ionic strength of each species in the mixture;

(c) determining a new set of relative component proportions; taking account of the ionic strength calculated in (b), and

(d) repeating the steps (b) and (c) until a predetermined convergence criteria is met.

10. The method according to claim 9 , wherein in step (a), the pre-defined ionic strength of the liquid mixture is addressed to salt species.

11. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the ion size parameter a of the Debye-Hückel equation is determined as

a

=

∑

I

i

⁢

a

i

I

(

I

)

wherein in equation (I), I i is the ionic strength and a i of species i, and I the total ionic strength.

12. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the ion size parameter a in the Debye-Hückel equation is approximated as

a= 0.5*(mass) 1/3 +shell  (II)

wherein in equation (II), the parameter “shell” is fixed at one value for a positively charged species; and at a different value for a negatively charged species.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein in equation (II), the parameter “shell” is fixed at a value in a range of 3.8-4.2 for positively charged ionic species and at a value in a range of 0-0.2 for negatively charged ionic species.

14. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the DoE includes multivariate analysis.

15. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the biomolecule is an antibody.

16. An apparatus for determining isocratic chromatography conditions for separating a biomolecule from a liquid sample, the apparatus comprising,

a computer configured to communicate with a software to execute a set of instructions to:

a) select a number of experiments (/V experiments) using design of experiments (DoE);

b) output to a controller for carrying out a number of 44 chromatography runs (M chromatography runs) for said N experiments on a chromatography column with in-line conditioning of at least two buffer gradients of two selected quality measures wherein paths and curvatures of the gradients are designed so that the points in the DoE are close to the paths of the gradients to obtain N elution fractions during the M chromatography runs, one for each of the DoE points passed by;

c) analyze a purity and yield of the N elution fractions to obtain responses data;

d) use the responses data to train a DoE regression model; and

e) use the DoE regression model to predict isocratic chromatography conditions for said biomolecule based on the results from b);

wherein the two selected quality measures are selected from the group consisting of type of chromatography resin; loading volume, wash volume, elution volume, binding buffer; elution buffer; surface determinants of the biomolecule and impurities present in the liquid sample and are orthogonal to each other, and

wherein the number of chromatography runs (M) is less than the number of experiments of DoE (N).

17. The apparatus according to claim 16 , wherein the means for selecting experiments is software capable of predicting a reduced but representative number of experiments, preferably by using DoE.

18. The apparatus according to claim 16 , which is an instrument comprising software and optionally a robot for performing all or part of a method.

19. A method for determination of chromatography conditions for separating a biomolecule from a liquid sample, the method comprising,

a1) preliminarily selecting a number of DOE experiments (N DoE experiments) using multivariate analysis,

a2) adjusting experimental parameters of said experiments to fall on at least two gradients of two selected quality measures,

b) performing a number of chromatography runs (M chromatography runs) for said N experiments on a chromatography column with in-line conditioning of at least two gradients of two selected quality measures wherein paths and curvatures of the gradients are designed so that the points in the DoE are close to the paths of the gradients to obtain N elution fractions during the M chromatography runs, one for each of the DoE points passed by;

c) analyzing a purity and yield of the N elution fractions to obtain responses data;

d) using the responses data to train a DoE regression model; and,

e) using the DoE regression model to predict isocratic chromatography conditions for said biomolecule;

wherein the two selected quality measures selected from the group consisting of type of chromatography resin; loading volume, wash volume, elution volume, binding buffer; elution buffer; surface determinants of the biomolecule and impurities present in the liquid sample and are orthogonal to each other,

wherein at least two of said at least two gradients are curved gradients, wherein the number of chromatography runs (M) is less than the number of experiments of DoE (N),

wherein the in-line conditioning comprises conditioning of a liquid sample to a predetermined pH and/or conductivity, and

wherein the biomolecule is a monoclonal antibody, or a fragment or fusion.

20. The method according to claim 19 , wherein the conditioning comprising determining the relative component proportions of at least one each of: a buffer; an acid or a base; a solvent; and, optionally, a salt, for providing a liquid mixture of pre-defined pH and ionic strength,

wherein the relative component proportions are determined using the equation of Debye-Hückel,

wherein the ion size parameter a in the Debye-Hückel equation is approximated as

a= 0.5*(mass) 1/3 +shell  (II)

wherein in equation (II), the parameter “shell” is fixed at a value in the range of 3.8-4.2 for positively charged ionic species; and at a value in the range of 0-0.2 for negatively charged ionic species, and

wherein the ionic strength of each species is used as weighting parameter;

wherein the relative component proportions are determined using an iterative procedure, comprising:

(a) determining the relative component proportions wherein the pre-defined ionic strength of the liquid mixture is addressed to the species according to a pre-defined distribution among the species, wherein the pre-defined ionic strength of the liquid mixture is addressed to the salt species;

(b) on the basis of the relative component proportions determined in the preceding step, calculating the ionic strength of each species in the mixture;

(c) determining a new set of relative component proportions; taking account of the ionic strength calculated in (b), and

(d) repeating the steps (b) and (c) until a predetermined convergence criteria is met.