Chromatography apparatus and method
The present invention relates to a computer implemented method ( 600 ) performed by a chromatography apparatus ( 400 ) configured to separate molecules, having varying size, from an eluent, the method comprising obtaining ( 610 ) reference data for a chromatography column of the chromatography apparatus, wherein the reference data is indicative of elution characteristics for a set of molecular sizes, obtaining ( 620 ) an elution progress measure and a corresponding quantitative measure indicative of a concentration of molecules in an eluate of the chromatograph) apparatus, estimating ( 630 ) a size measure indicative of molecular size of the molecules in the eluate, rendering ( 640 ) a representation ( 300 ) indicative of the quantitative measure and the size measure, controlling ( 650 ) a display to display the representation to a user of the chromatography apparatus.
1. A computer implemented method performed by a chromatography apparatus configured to separate molecules, having varying size, from an eluent, the method comprising:
obtaining reference data for a chromatography column of the chromatography apparatus, wherein the reference data is indicative of elution characteristics for a set of molecular sizes,
obtaining an elution progress measure and a corresponding quantitative measure indicative of a concentration of molecules in an eluate of the chromatography apparatus,
estimating a size measure indicative of molecular size of the molecules in the eluate,
rendering a representation indicative of the quantitative measure and the size measure,
controlling a display to display the representation to a user of the chromatography apparatus,
wherein the molecular size is estimated using a predetermined relation, comprised in the reference data, and the elution progress measure,
further wherein the predetermined relation is indicating a curve, and the predetermined relation is obtained by performing curve fitting of value pairs comprising a gel-phase distribution coefficient (Kav) and corresponding molecular size.
2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the elution progress measure is elution volume (Ve), wherein the gel-phase distribution coefficient (Kav) is dependent on a total volume of the column (Vt), the elution volume (Ve) and column void volume (VO).
3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the gel-phase distribution coefficient (Kav) is given by the relation:
Kav
=
(
Ve
-
V
0
)
(
Vt
-
V
0
)
.
4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the predetermined relation is a polynomial relation.
5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the quantitative measure is indicative of ultraviolet light absorption of the eluate.
6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the elution progress measure is indicative of elution process running time or eluate volume.
7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the representation is a diagram having the quantitative measure represented on a first axis and the molecular size on a second axis.
8. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising activating or deactivating fractionation using the molecular size and one or more predetermined intervals of molecular sizes.
9. A chromatography apparatus configured to separate molecules, having varying size, from an eluent, the chromatography apparatus comprising:
a column,
a display, and
a control unit comprising circuitry, the circuitry comprising:
a processing circuitry, and
a memory, said memory comprising instructions executable by said processing circuitry, whereby said chromatography apparatus is configured to perform the method according to claim 1 .
10. A computer program comprising computer-executable instructions for causing a control unit, when the computer-executable instructions are executed on processing circuitry comprised in the control unit, to perform any of the method steps according claim 1 .
11. A computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage medium, the computer-readable storage medium having the computer program according to claim 10 embodied therein.