45°53′02″N 13°53′42″E / 45.883997°N 13.894940°E / 45.883997; 13.894940

BIA Separations
Company typePrivate
IndustryHigh-performance liquid chromatography, Biotechnology, Biochromatography
FoundedLjubljana, Slovenia (1998)
Headquarters
Area served
Worldwide
ProductsMonolithic HPLC columns
Websitebiaseparations.com

BIA Separations is a biotechnology company focused on the production of methacrylate monolithic HPLC columns and developing industrial purification processes and analytical methods.

Company history

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BIA Separations was formed in 1998 by a group of scientists in Ljubljana, Slovenia to commercialize a new chromatographic resin based on monolith technology. Monolithic resin was developed independently by three different laboratories in late 1980s led by Hjertén, Švec and Tennikova.[1] The company was one of the few Slovenian companies to receive venture capital funding at that time-Horizonte Venture Management realizing the potential of monoliths made the initial investment in the company. During that year, BIA Separations released its first commercial product marketed under the trade name of CIM (Convective Interaction Media). The new technique was named HPMC (High Performance Monolith Chromatography). During the 1999 and 2000s, the company promoted this new platform technology to the scientific and business community and registered several patents.[2] In 2007 the company headquarters moved to Villach, Austria. In 2011 BIA Separations entered a strategic partnership with Japan Synthetic Rubber Corporation, a Japanese company producing synthetic materials.[3] A strategic partnership agreement with Showa Denko K.K. (SDK) was signed in 2012.[4]

Technology

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CIM monoliths are made of porous methacrylate polymers composed of interconnected channels that range in size from 1-6 μm.[5] It is these channels that account for the media separation power and flow characteristics and ability to purify large biomolecules, such as large proteins, immunoglobulins, plasmid DNA and viruses with their activity intact. Components to be separated are conveyed to the active groups located on the surface of the channels by bulk flow of the mobile phase. Since the channels are interconnected, there is no diffusion, no dead end pores, no void volume and no stagnant zones to slow down the transport between the stationary and mobile phase. Consequently, monolithic columns have flow independent resolution and binding capacity. They exhibit low back pressure, even at very high flow rates. In this way, the purification time can be significantly decreased, resulting in a pronounced reduction of the purification process costs.

Applications

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Depending on the column size, CIM monolithic columns are primarily used for the purification or analysis of large biomolecules which are being used for cancer gene therapy, treatment of viral infectious diseases and treatment of genetic diseases. Some types of molecules that can be successfully purified using CIM columns are pDNA,[6] IgM,[7] inter-alpha inhibitors,[8] virus like particles,[9] and diverse viruses; adenoviruses,[10] bacteriophages,[11] feline calicivirus,[12] hepatitis A,[12] lentivirus,[13] influenza A and B,[14] rabies virus,[15] rotavirus,[16] tomato and pepino mosaic virus.[17]

The Monolith Summer School

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Since 2004, BIA Separations has organized and hosted the Monolith Summer School and Symposium (MSS) which takes place every 2 years. MSS was established as there were no dedicated conferences to this technology and to bring together the top international scientists and researchers in the area of monolith chromatography to share their experiences and innovative applications.

References

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  1. ^ F. Švec, T. B. Tennikova, Z. Deyl Monolithic materials preparation, properties and applications Journal of Chromatography Library, Elsevier, 2003
  2. ^ CIM Convective Interaction Media
  3. ^ JSR Expands its Biomedical Business by Investing in BIA Separations' Unique Purification Technology
  4. ^ SDK invests in BIAsep to get resins know-how
  5. ^ CIM Technology Archived 2013-01-21 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ Shin, Min Jae; Tan, Lihan; Jeong, Min Ho; Kim, Ji-Heung; Choe, Woo-Seok (2011). "Monolith-based immobilized metal affinity chromatography increases production efficiency for plasmid DNA purification". Journal of Chromatography A. 1218 (31): 5273–5278. doi:10.1016/j.chroma.2011.06.040. ISSN 0021-9673. PMID 21733525.
    • Smrekar, Franc; Podgornik, Aleš; Ciringer, Mateja; Kontrec, Sandra; Raspor, Peter; Štrancar, Aleš; Peterka, Matjaž (2010). "Preparation of pharmaceutical-grade plasmid DNA using methacrylate monolithic columns". Vaccine. 28 (8): 2039–2045. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2009.10.061. ISSN 0264-410X. PMID 20188261.
    • Krajnc, Nika Lendero; Smrekar, Franc; Štrancar, Aleš; Podgornik, Aleš (2011). "Adsorption behavior of large plasmids on the anion-exchange methacrylate monolithic columns". Journal of Chromatography A. 1218 (17): 2413–2424. doi:10.1016/j.chroma.2010.12.058. ISSN 0021-9673. PMID 21232746.
  7. ^ Gagnon, Pete; Hensel, Frank; Lee, Soon; Zaidi, Simin (2011). "Chromatographic behavior of IgM:DNA complexes". Journal of Chromatography A. 1218 (17): 2405–2412. doi:10.1016/j.chroma.2010.12.066. ISSN 0021-9673. PMID 21215402.
  8. ^ Lim, Yow-Pin; Josic, Djuro; Callanan, Helen; Brown, Jeanne; Hixson, Douglas C. (2005). "Affinity purification and enzymatic cleavage of inter-alpha inhibitor proteins using antibody and elastase immobilized on CIM monolithic disks". Journal of Chromatography A. 1065 (1): 39–43. doi:10.1016/j.chroma.2004.11.006. ISSN 0021-9673. PMID 15782948.
  9. ^ Koho, Tiia; Mäntylä, Tuomas; Laurinmäki, Pasi; Huhti, Leena; Butcher, Sarah J.; Vesikari, Timo; Kulomaa, Markku S.; Hytönen, Vesa P. (2012). "Purification of norovirus-like particles (VLPs) by ion exchange chromatography". Journal of Virological Methods. 181 (1): 6–11. doi:10.1016/j.jviromet.2012.01.003. ISSN 0166-0934. PMID 22265819.
  10. ^ Whitfield, Robert J.; Battom, Suzanne E.; Barut, Miloš; Gilham, David E.; Ball, Philip D. (2009). "Rapid high-performance liquid chromatographic analysis of adenovirus type 5 particles with a prototype anion-exchange analytical monolith column". Journal of Chromatography A. 1216 (13): 2725–2729. doi:10.1016/j.chroma.2008.11.010. ISSN 0021-9673. PMID 19041094.
  11. ^ Adriaenssens, Evelien M.; Lehman, Susan M.; Vandersteegen, Katrien; Vandenheuvel, Dieter; Philippe, Didier L.; Cornelissen, Anneleen; Clokie, Martha R.J.; García, Andrés J.; De Proft, Maurice; Maes, Martine; Lavigne, Rob (2012). "CIM® monolithic anion-exchange chromatography as a useful alternative to CsCl gradient purification of bacteriophage particles". Virology. 434 (2): 265–270. doi:10.1016/j.virol.2012.09.018. ISSN 0042-6822. PMC 4286298. PMID 23079104.
    • Smrekar, Franc; Ciringer, Mateja; Štrancar, Aleš; Podgornik, Aleš (2011). "Characterisation of methacrylate monoliths for bacteriophage purification". Journal of Chromatography A. 1218 (17): 2438–2444. doi:10.1016/j.chroma.2010.12.083. ISSN 0021-9673. PMID 21238969.
    • Kramberger, Petra; Honour, Richard C.; Herman, Richard E.; Smrekar, Franci; Peterka, Matjaž (2010). "Purification of the Staphylococcus aureus bacteriophages VDX-10 on methacrylate monoliths". Journal of Virological Methods. 166 (1–2): 60–4. doi:10.1016/j.jviromet.2010.02.020. ISSN 0166-0934. PMID 20188758.
  12. ^ a b Kovač, Katarina; Gutiérrez-Aguirre, Ion; Banjac, Marko; Peterka, Matjaž; Poljšak-Prijatelj, Mateja; et al. (2009). "A novel method for concentrating hepatitis A virus and caliciviruses from bottled water". Journal of Virological Methods. 162 (1–2): 272–275. doi:10.1016/j.jviromet.2009.07.013. ISSN 0166-0934. PMID 19646482.
  13. ^ Bandeira, Vanessa; Peixoto, Cristina; Rodrigues, Ana F.; Cruz, Pedro E.; Alves, Paula M.; Coroadinha, Ana S.; Carrondo, Manuel J. T. (2012). "Downstream Processing of Lentiviral Vectors: Releasing Bottlenecks". Human Gene Therapy Methods. 23 (4): 255–263. doi:10.1089/hgtb.2012.059. ISSN 1946-6536. PMID 22934827.
  14. ^ Industrial Platform for Virus Purification[permanent dead link]
  15. ^ Improvement of Rabies Vaccine Production Using Monolithic Chromatographic Support[permanent dead link]
  16. ^ Gutiérrez-Aguirre, Ion; Banjac, Marko; Steyer, Andrej; Poljšak-Prijatelj, Mateja; Peterka, Matjaž; Štrancar, Aleš; Ravnikar, Maja (2009). "Concentrating rotaviruses from water samples using monolithic chromatographic supports". Journal of Chromatography A. 1216 (13): 2700–2704. doi:10.1016/j.chroma.2008.10.106. ISSN 0021-9673. PMID 19019382.
  17. ^ Kramberger, Petra; Peterka, Matjaž; Boben, Jana; Ravnikar, Maja; Štrancar, Aleš (2007). "Short monolithic columns:A breakthrough in purification and fast quantification of tomato mosaic virus". Journal of Chromatography A. 1144 (1): 143–149. doi:10.1016/j.chroma.2006.10.055. ISSN 0021-9673. PMID 17097098.
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