iBB

The establishment of novel, simpler and improved purification processes is extremely important to make antibody-based treatment options more accessible and with a lower economic burden to healthcare systems and patients. In this context, the development of microfluidic tools for the optimization of chromatography operating conditions can offer advantages such as low consumption of molecules, fast generation of results and ability to automate and multiplex the assays. In a collaboration between INESC-MN and iBB, researchers have recently reported a novel microfluidics-based methodology to perform rapid and multiplexed screening of various chromatography ligands relative to their ability to bind different target molecules in solution. The work was published in the Biotechnology Journal and is expected to contribute to the fields of separation sciences and analytical chemistry and inspire new developments within the purification of biopharmaceuticals or other molecules.

Microfluidic devices with integrated photodetectors can address the need for compact and portable biosensing platforms for medical, veterinary, environmental and food safety applications. However, depending on the application, performance requirements like the minimum detectable limits, the target sensitivity, and the detection time can vary dramatically. To improve the engineering of fit-for-purpose bead-based microfluidic biosensors, researchers at BERG-iBB and INESC-MN developed a simple quantitative methodology to determine (1) equilibrium constants, (2) binding kinetics, (3) rate at which photons are generated/absorbed per captured molecule, and (4) molecular capture efficiencies. These parameters provide an effective trade-off between required sensitivity, cost effectiveness and assay complexity. This work was published in the IOP Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering.

Inês Pinto from BERG-iBB just won the ESBES Award at the ESBES 2018 conference held in Lisbon (8-12 September 2018) for her work “Optimizing the performance of chromatographic separations using integrated microfluidic devices: adsorption/elution kinetic studies and multiplexed analysis”. The work is part of Inês' PhD project on Biotechnology and is co-authored by Raquel Aires Barros, Viginia Chu, João Pedro Conde and Ana Azevedo. Diogo Pinto from SCERG was one of the runnerups of the competition. The ESBES Award is granted biannually by the European Society of Biochemical Engineering Sciences and aims at recognizing outstanding PhD thesis or scientific publications by students or early carrier researchers in the field of biochemical engineering.