Dr Kevin Mattison, principal bioanalytical scientist at Malvern, and an expert in protein characterisation, is one of three instructors at the pre-conference short course on the ‘Characterisation and Analysis of Particulates’. He will also speak about ‘Measuring Protein Charge – Historical Challenges and Recent Developments’ as part of the main conference programme in the session covering analytical tools and methods on Friday 14 January. Malvern will also participate in the trade exhibition.

The pre-conference short course ‘Characterisation and Analysis of Particulates’ takes place on the afternoon of Sunday 9January. It examines subvisible particles in biopharmaceuticals and the need for early and consistent particle detection, quantitation and control throughout the product lifecycle. A workshop and interactive discussion will cover strategies to utilise complementary methods and techniques at different phases of product development.

In his conference paper ‘Measuring Protein Charge – Historical Challenges and Recent Developments’ , Dr Mattison will highlight the growing interest in measuring surface charge as a means of predicting protein aggregation. He will go on to discuss the historical challenges of measuring protein surface charge, issues and developments surrounding the use of electrophoretic light scattering (ELS) for this measurement, and recent advances.

Malvern Instruments offers a range of solutions for characterising proteins and other macromolecules. These include the Zetasizer family, employing dynamic and static light scattering to measure size and molecular weight; Viscotek advanced size exclusion chromatography (SEC) systems and detectors for rapid, reliable characterisation of molecular weight and molecular structure; and the Sysmex FPIA-3000 dynamic imaging for dynamic imaging of sub-visible/visible particles, size and shape characterisation of protein aggregates.