Recently, WUXI EXTPURE SOLUTIONS Co., Ltd. (WUXI EXTPURE) announced that it has signed a technology development agreement with Prof. Yongyou Zhang from the School of Life Sciences of Xiamen University (Xiamen University School of Biological Sciences), and established a joint R&D center, “Xiamen University School of Life Sciences-WUXI EXTPURE SOLUTIONS Co. SOLUTIONS Co., Ltd. to establish the “Affinity Ligand Design, Screening and Performance Evaluation Platform”.

Background

The AAV process package has become mature. The first step is to use affinity chromatography to capture viral products. AAV virus affinity chromatography products on the market include Thermo’s POROS™ CaptureSelect™ AAVX series and Repligen’s AVIPure® AAV series and Cytiva's Capto AVB series.

Although the technology package has matured, there is still huge room for upgrading the captured affinity filler:

. Although the affinity ligand shows strong virus capture ability and impurity removal effect, the product still has some problems in alkali resistance and versatility;

. At the same time, coupling affinity ligands to macroporous microspheres or agarose packing also brings about the problems of low product yield, long purification process time and oversize of the purification packing column.

Repligen acquired Taiwan's new Tantti to introduce ultra-large pore monolithic column preparation technology. One of its purposes is to provide a stronger carrier matrix for its existing AVIPURE® affinity ligand.

For the LVV suspension process, there is no mature purification process scheme downstream, and conventional Capto Core and AEX series fillers are difficult to meet the requirements for product purity and yield. Affinity purification of LVV is a better choice, and Thermo Fisher has previously launched CaptureSelect™ Lenti VSVG captures LVV pseudotyped by VSVG, but the virus yield is very low due to issues with elution conditions and product retention. As an enveloped virus, the activity of LVV is greatly affected by the solution environment (pH, conductivity), temperature and process time. The development of affinity ligands requires high selectivity and mild elution conditions.

In response to the above-mentioned industry pain points, WUXI EXTPURE cooperated with Xiamen University's Institute of Biological Sciences to develop affinity ligands including but not limited to AAV and LVV, and combined with the advantages of convection columns to accelerate the launch of affinity convection chromatography products.

Research content

1. Design, development and verification of AAV affinity ligands

2. Design, development and verification of LVV affinity ligands

3. Design and development of exosomes and VLP affinity ligands

Significance of the topic: Affinity convection chromatography-the best virus catcher

With the cooperation between industry, academia and research institutes, WUXI EXTPURE product brand ACC® will surpass CaptureSelect and AVIPURE series. Based on the existing foundation, WUXI EXTPURE The ACC® product promotion plan is as follows: 2025Q2: Domestic promotion of AAV affinity series products; 2025 American Cytogenetic Society: Global promotion of AAV affinity series products.

Both parties stated: “Xiamen University School of Life Sciences and WUXI EXTPURE SOLUTIONS Co., Ltd. The technology development cooperation marks a new starting point. Through joint research and development between industry, academia and research institutes, we will jointly build an advanced ‘affinity ligand design, screening and performance evaluation platform’ to inject new impetus into cell and gene therapy (CGT) purification technology. This is not only an important step in technological innovation, but also an important practice in promoting the development of the industry, bringing more breakthroughs and contributions to the future of the CGT field. "

WUXI EXTPURE believes that through the close cooperation between the two parties and the integration of "AI + biology + materials + purification", ACC affinity convection chromatography will be accelerated to become the first brand of cell gene therapy purification.