Analytical tools for monitoring changes in physical and chemical properties of chromatography resin upon reuse

Protein A resins are often reused for multiple cycles to improve process economy during mAb purification. Significant reduction in binding capacity and product recovery are typically observed due to the presence of unwanted materials (foulants) deposited on the resin upon reuse. In this paper, we have used a wide spectrum of qualitative and quantitative analytical tools (particle size analysis, HPLC, fluorescence, SEM, MS, and FTIR) to compare the strengths and shortcomings of different analytical tools in terms of their capability to detect the fouling of the resin and relate it to chromatographic cycle performance. While each tool offers an insight into this complex phenomena, fluorescence is the only one that can be used for real‐time monitoring of resin fouling. A correlation could be established between fluorescence intensity and the process performance attributes (like yield or binding capacity) impacted upon resin reuse. This demonstration of the application of fluorescence for real‐time monitoring correlated empirically with process performance attributes and the results support its use as a PAT tool as part of a process control strategy. While the focus of this paper is on fouling of protein A chromatography resin, the approach and strategy are pertinent to other modes of chromatography as well.     

Hydrostibination

A rigid naphthalenediamine framework has been used to prepare antimony hydrides that feature LUMO shapes and energies similar to those found in secondary boranes. By exploiting this feature, we introduce the first examples of uncatalyzed hydrostibination reactions of robust C≡C, C=C, C=O, and N=N bonds as new elementary hydrometalation reactions analogous to hydroboration. These results endorse the notion of a diagonal relationship between the lightest p‐block element and the heaviest Group 15 elements and may lead to the conception of novel reaction chemistry.     

New butyrolactone and other metabolites from the bark of Endlicheria arenosa against of the phytopathogen Colletotrichum tamarilloi

In this work, screening of Lauraceae species for their antifungal activity against Collectotrichum tamarilloi was carried out and the ethanol extract derived from the bark of Endlicheria arenosa was found to be the best candidate. From the ethanolic extract of the bark of E. arenosa, the hexane and chloroform fractions were found to be active, from these five fatty acids were identified and two lactones were isolated. The most active fatty acid was the dodecanoic acid with a minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 78.0 μM. The butyrolactone 3R,4R-licunolide A, it has not previously reported, and licunolide B show both the lowest MIC (55.3 μM). This is the first report of compounds of natural origin as growth inhibitors of C. tamarilloi.     

SCOTfluors: Small,Conjugatable, Orthogonal,and Tunable Fluorophores for In Vivo Imaging of Cell Metabolism

The transport and trafficking of metabolites are critical for the correct functioning of live cells. However, in situ metabolic imaging studies are hampered by the lack of fluorescent chemical structures that allow direct monitoring of small metabolites under physiological conditions with high spatial and temporal resolution. Herein, we describe SCOTfluors as novel small‐sized multi‐colored fluorophores for real‐time tracking of essential metabolites in live cells and in vivo and for the acquisition of metabolic profiles from human cancer cells of variable origin.     

In vitro Reconstitution of the Biosynthetic Pathway to the Nitroimidazole Antibiotic Azomycin

Nitroimidazoles are one of the most effective ways to treat anaerobic bacterial infections. Synthetic nitroimidazoles are inspired by the structure of azomycin, isolated from Streptomyces eurocidicus in 1953. Despite its foundational role, no biosynthetic gene cluster for azomycin has been found. Guided by bioinformatics, we identified a cryptic biosynthetic gene cluster in Streptomyces cattleya and then carried out in vitro reconstitution to deduce the enzymatic steps in the pathway linking l ‐arginine to azomycin. The gene cluster we discovered is widely distributed among soil‐dwelling actinobacteria and proteobacteria, suggesting that azomycin and related nitroimidazoles may play important ecological roles. Our work sets the stage for development of biocatalytic approaches to generate azomycin and related nitroimidazoles.     

Robust Microporous Metal–Organic Frameworks for Highly Efficient and Simultaneous Removal of Propyne and Propadiene from Propylene

Simultaneous removal of trace amounts of propyne and propadiene from propylene is an important but challenging industrial process. We report herein a class of microporous metal–organic frameworks ( NKMOF‐1‐M ) with exceptional water stability and remarkably high uptakes for both propyne and propadiene at low pressures. NKMOF‐1‐M separated a ternary propyne/propadiene/propylene (0.5 : 0.5 : 99.0) mixture with the highest reported selectivity for the production of polymer‐grade propylene (99.996 %) at ambient temperature, as attributed to its strong binding affinity for propyne and propadiene over propylene. Moreover, we were able to visualize propyne and propadiene molecules in the single‐crystal structure of NKMOF‐1‐M through a convenient approach under ambient conditions, which helped to precisely understand the binding sites and affinity for propyne and propadiene. These results provide important guidance on using ultramicroporous MOFs as physisorbent materials.     

Laser welding of aluminium alloys 5083 and 6082 under conduction regime

In this work, samples of aluminium alloys 5083-T0 and 6082-T6 have been welded under conduction regime, using a high power diode laser. The influence of experimental variables, as the laser power and the linear welding rate, on the sizes and properties of the butt weld beads has been studied. In addition to measure the depths and widths of the weld beads, their microstructure, microhardness profile and corrosion resistance have been analysed. The results obtained allow one to define the experimental conditions leading to good quality butt welds with higher penetration than those published in the recent literature under conduction regime. Maximum penetration values of 3 and 2.3 mm were obtained for 5083 and 6082, respectively. Additionally, a simple mathematical expression relating the weld depth (d) with the laser power (P) and the processing rate (v) has been proposed: d=(P−bb^′)/(av)−(ba^′)/a, being a, a′, b and b′ constant values for each alloy and under the employed experimental conditions. The values of these coefficients have been estimated from the fitting to the experimental depth values of 5083 and 6082 butt welds generated under conduction regime.     

The effect of relative plasma plume delay on the properties of complex oxide films grown by multi-laser, multi-target combinatorial pulsed laser deposition

We report the effects of relative time delay of plasma plumes on thin garnet crystal films fabricated by dual-beam, combinatorial pulsed laser deposition. Relative plume delay was found to affect both the lattice constant and elemental composition of mixed Gd₃Ga₅O₁₂ (GGG) and Gd₃Sc₂Ga₃O₁₂ (GSGG) films. Further analysis of the plasmas was undertaken using a Langmuir probe, which revealed that for relative plume delays shorter than 200 μs, the second plume travels through a partial vacuum created by the first plume, leading to higher energy ion bombardment of the growing film. The resulting in-plane stresses are consistent with the transition to a higher value of lattice constant normal to the film plane that was observed around this delay value. At delays shorter than 10 μs, plume propagation was found to overlap, leading to scattering of lighter ions from the plume and a change in stoichiometry of the resultant films.     

Laser-driven coherent betatron oscillation in a laser-wakefield cavity

The origin of beam disparity in emittance and betatron oscillation orbits, in and out of the polarization plane of the drive laser of laser-plasma accelerators, is explained in terms of betatron oscillations driven by the laser field. As trapped electrons accelerate, they move forward and interact with the laser pulse. For the bubble regime, a simple model is presented to describe this interaction in terms of a harmonic oscillator with a driving force from the laser and a restoring force from the plasma wake field. The resulting beam oscillations in the polarization plane, with period approximately the wavelength of the driving laser, increase emittance in that plane and cause microbunching of the beam. These effects are observed directly in 3D particle-in-cell simulations.