Acquity Arc Bio System Improves Bioseparation Analytical Methods

The new Acquity Arc Bio System by Waters, a specialty measurement company, is a versatile, iron-free, bio-inert, quaternary liquid chromatograph that is specifically engineered to enable efficient transfer and improvement of bioseparation analytical methods. The system offers these benefits regardless of the liquid chromatography (LC) platform on which the original method was developed.

The original Acquity Arc System, launched in 2015, is widely used in pharmaceutical development and quality control laboratories worldwide. The new Arc Bio System allows biopharmaceutical laboratories to take advantage of the Arc platform for creating robust and reliable methods that are easily transferable from lab-to-lab and from one LC instrument platform to another while maintaining method integrity.

The Acquity Arc Bio System is built o run reversed-phase, ion exchange, size exclusion, and hydrophobic interaction LC methods with minimal carryover and maximum recovery of biomolecules. The system's flow paths are made of non-stainless-steel and iron-free, bio-inert materials that are designed to minimize undesirable protein interactions and maximize system robustness under salt and pH extremes. The system's multi-flow path technology delivers plug-and-play compatibility with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) or ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) methods through a selectable dwell volume that emulates the dwell volume of the original instrument. This minimizes the time needed for laboratories to redevelop methods from internal and external partners.

In addition to replicating established HPLC assays, the ACQUITY Arc Bio System can improve the sensitivity, resolution, and speed of chromatography methods by leveraging more modern, more efficient 2.5-2.7-micron particle column technologies. These include the new Waters BioResolve RP mAb Polyphenyl solid core Columns for the reproducible analysis of intact or sub units of mAbs and antibody-drug conjugates. The system also supports previously developed "legacy" methods on traditional 3-5-micron HPLC columns.

The Acquity Arc Bio System is compatible with many detectors from Waters, including photodiode array, ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry, fluorescence, refractive index, evaporative light scattering, and the Acquity QDa mass detector. The system also features Auto Blend Plus technology that automatically blends up to four solvents in any combination or proportion. The auto blend technology also allows the operator to program in pH and ionic strength for ion-exchange or size exclusion-based methods, or program in the organic solvent concentration and pH for reversed-phase gradient separations. This significantly reduces human error and the task of preparing buffered mobile phases manually, according to the company. The Arc Bio System is controlled through Waters Empower 3 and MassLynx software.

"For many GLP/GMP laboratories, developing and transferring validated assays for routine product release and multi-attribute monitoring is a fundamental task which Waters is committed to simplifying with the Arc Bio System," said Dr. Diane Diehl, senior director, Pharmaceutical Market Development, Waters, in a company press release. "With today's introduction, and [the] launch of the BioResolve RP mAb Columns, Waters is continuing its commitment to the biopharmaceutical industry by meeting the needs of analytical scientists and lab managers across the discovery, development, and manufacturing pipeline."

Source: Waters