Originally Aired: May 28, 2020
Time: 8:00 am PT, 11:00 am ET, 17:00 CET
It has become readily apparent in recent months that the rapid development of efficacious vaccines is critical to global public health. Yet, the nature and composition vaccines make them inherently difficult to characterize. For instance, the active ingredient, such as a toxoid or protein subunit, is often in very low concentration, while the adjuvant, such as alum, can often be in quite high concentration relative to the biologic—making accurate attribute readings challenging.
In this GEN webinar, we will discuss some typical workflows used to characterize the properties of vaccines, looking at properties such as particle size, surface charge, aggregation, and protein secondary structure. In this discussion, we will highlight the strengths of Microfluidic Modulation Spectroscopy, a novel method to examine protein secondary structure in complex systems such as vaccines.
Following this, two practical applications of MMS will be presented: the first example examines the aggregation properties of a vaccine system in comparison to existing dye-based techniques. The second will introduce the use of MMS to characterize a biosimilar product, used as a linker in many vaccine products.
Produced with support from:
Patrick Ahl, PhD
Assistant Principal Scientist,
Vaccine Drug Product Development
Merck
