David kahn is director of purification sciences department of Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (HGSI).
Cleaning Polyethersulfone Membranes After Ultrafiltration-Diafiltration in Monoclonal Antibody Production
In the pharmaceutical industry, ultrafiltration (UF) membranes are used extensively in the downstream purification of recombinant proteins or monoclonal antibodies. However, the fouling of membranes after a unit operation?especially when recombinant proteins or monoclonal antibodies are highly concentrated?is a common problem. Typically, normalized water permeability (NWP) of a membrane can be reduced to about 20 percent of its original permeability at the end of an ultrafiltration-diafiltration (UF-DF) operation.