(522f) High Performance Countercurrent Membrane Systems for Bioprocessing

Although membrane filtration is used throughout the downstream purification process for production of high value biopharmaceuticals, there are almost no applications of countercurrent membrane systems based on diffusive transport. This talk will examine two exciting applications of countercurrent membrane systems in bioprocessing: countercurrent dialysis for buffer exchange and High Performance Countercurrent Membrane Purification (HPCMP) for protein purification. Both processes use low-cost commercially-available hollow fiber membranes originally developed for hemodialysis. Countercurrent dialysis experiments demonstrated 99.9% impurity removal with less buffer required than for traditional batch diafiltration processes. HPCMP can effectively remove small host cell proteins, with the diffusive transport providing higher selectivity than pressure-driven membrane filtration while the countercurrent contacting reduces buffer requirements below those for traditional chromatographic processes. In addition, both systems can provide truly continuous operation, making them highly attractive for implementation as part of integrated systems for continuous biomanufacturing. These results clearly demonstrate the potential of developing countercurrent membrane systems for enhanced bioprocessing.