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April 10, 2020 - Using Spectradyne's nCS1TM for validating a virus purification process

Tight process controls are required to ensure high purity virus preparations, in an ever-increasing range of applications that include vaccines, viral vectors for gene therapy and oncolytic immunotherapy.

Existing purification methodologies, i.e. ultracentrifugation, precipitation, chromatography and density gradient, are selective and do not work for all viruses. In establishing an effective purification protocol it is therefore necessary to investigate each step to establish the most suitable scheme for isolating virus from impurities in its growth environment (e.g., culture media or cellular contaminants).

Fast and accurate quantification of virus after each purification stage enables quick feedback that informs decisions and validates the efficiency of the chosen purification approach.

Spectradyne's nCS1TM is an advanced, easy to use microfluidic technology that delivers a rapid assessment of the quality of the virus preparation. Complete and accurate sample analysis is obtained in minutes-without cell culture-and requires only 3 microliters of sample.

You can read our previous blog post detailing the value of the nCS1 for virus quantification.

The example shown to the right illustrates how the nCS1's high quality data provides crucial information to researchers in the assessment of the effectiveness of a sequential virus purification strategy.

The initial preparation exhibits no evidence of a viral population over the measured size range, 125-600 nm. The first enrichment step, Purified 1, fails to isolate the virus particles above the culture media background. However, the Purified 2 sample exhibits a clear peak at 230 nm and demonstrates that the second purification step does a dramatically better job of purifying the virus particles.

Spectradyne's nCS1TM is a perfect tool for process development of virus products — it delivers rapid results while being affordable, easy to use, and easy to adopt.

Want to learn more about how it saves virologists time? Visit our virus applications page.

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virus enrichment

Quantitative analysis of sample purification steps using the nCS1TM enable better informed decisions and speed up R&D.

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