Yscript partner BIA Separations, now part of Sartorius, is lead partner of 2nd Annual mRNA-Based Therapeutics Summit End of July in Boston
Ajdovščina, 21 July 2022 – Slovenian biotechnology company BIA Separations, now part of Sartorius is acting as lead partner and contributing to the programme of the 2nd Annual mRNA-Based Therapeutics Summit from 26 to 28 July in Boston, USA. The conference will bring together more than 350 participants from the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries as well as research institutions facilitating an exchange on the latest mRNA technologies for the production of drugs and vaccines against viral diseases, cancer and other medical conditions. More than 75 speakers, including Tomas Kostelec from Yscript partner BIA Separations, now part of Sartorius will present the latest research results and solutions. Networking opportunities with industry leaders such as Pfizer, moderna, BioNTech, CureVac, AstraZeneca, Sanofi, Janssen and Roche, as well as case studies, fireside chats with biopharma leaders, a tech slam and a poster presentation will round off the three-day conference.
The first day of the industry event (26 July, 2022) will be used as a pre-conference focus day for a thematic introduction to mRNA research and technologies. On day two and three of the conference (27 - 28 July, 2022), the focus will be on the triad of topics "Discovery", "Pre-clinical & clinical development" and "Manufacturing" of mRNA technologies.
As part of the thematic focus "Discovery - Navigating the Future Outlook of Successful mRNA-Based Vaccines and Therapeutics", Tomas Kostelec, Yscript consortium member and Product Manager mRNA at BIA Separations, now part of Sartorius will give a 30-minute presentation on "Chromatographic tools in an mRNA process: from analytics to purification" on 27 July at 10 a.m. The relevance of the topic is very high as the demand for mRNA as a therapeutic modality has increased dramatically due to its successful use as a vaccine during the Covid 19 pandemic. Some of the technical challenges faced in large-scale production can have a significant impact on the economics of mRNA. Kostelec's presentation will discuss chromatographic solutions to support mRNA production:
Fast at-line HPLC assays for in-process monitoring of the IVT reaction
- optimise yield and development of IVT reactions in the fed-batch process
- reduce reagent consumption
Purification of non-polyadenylated RNA using different multimodal chromatography solutions with different ligands
- alternative to affinity chromatography with CIM® Oligo dT18
Kostelec has a master's degree in organic chemistry from University College London. Since 2016, he has worked for BIA Separations, now part of Sartorius as an analytical scientist, where he supported development activities for AAV, influenza and other viruses. He is currently Product Manager for mRNA at Sartorius, where his area of interest includes mRNA purification and analytics. Corresponding author of Tomas Kostelec's talk is his colleague and Yscript team member Rok Sekirnik. Other scientists involved in the research on which the talk is based are Urh Černigoj, Aleš Štrancar and Rok Miklavčič, also from BIA Separations, now part of Sartorius, and members of the Yscript team.
