Catching up with OMNISEC! Part 2
Last year I highlighted a handful of publications featuring OMNISEC as a powerful analytical tool for multi-detector GPC/SEC analyses. As time marches on, even in these unprecedented times, OMNISEC continues to become more pervasive in the global scientific community. Therefore, as we head into 2021 it’s time for Catching up with OMNISEC! Part 2.
Previously, the publications I called attention to hailed from a variety of fields and focused on a diverse set of materials. This time, I’m going to highlight how OMNISEC has contributed to work from bio-related fields. While that narrows things down a bit, the examples below still range from drug-delivery and biodegradable polymers to food and cosmetics.
Arabinoxylan analysis
Teresa Demuth et al. at the Institute of Food, Nutrition and Health used OMNISEC to study the most common dietary fiber in cereal grains (feruloyated arabinoxylan, AX) after undergoing an extrusion and milling process. Milling was found to reduce the molecular weights of the AX samples, which facilitated an overall increase in solubility. This has the potential to increase the incorporation of the AX dietary fiber in health-promoting foods. Good news!
Star polymer analysis
Richard M. England et al. at AstraZeneca synthesized dendrimer-based star polymers to yield well-defined materials designed for future drug-delivery applications. By controlling the feed ratio of the dendrimer to monomer, star polymers of 79, 149, and 252 kDa were synthesized and characterized with OMNISEC. In addition, fine-tuning the molecular weight allowed the researches to control the hydrodynamic sizes of the star polymers; an advantageous feature for nanomedicine design. Noteworthy: the authors also used a Zetasizer Nano ZS to study the samples’ hydrodynamic radii!
Copovidone analysis
Anura S. Indulkar et al., a combined group from AbbVie Inc. and Purdue University, studied the dissolution mechanisms of amorphous solid dispersions of the drug Ritonavir with copovidone. The team used OMNISEC to characterize the copovidone. Subsequently, the solubilities of Ritonavir (poor) and copovidone (good), along with the drug loading level, offered the researchers control of the release via the formulation specifics.
Chelating polymer analysis
Ying Chen et al. at Cornell University have recently reported the synthesis of crosslinked biodegradable elastomers via a chelation mechanism. They used OMNISEC to characterize three versions of their chelating linear polymer containing various concentrations of the binding ligand. Moreover, by controlling the metal ions, the researchers can alter the physical properties of the elastomers. And, the version crosslinked with Fe3+ has been shown to be more bio-compatible than the widely used polycaprolactone!
Levan analysis
Marta Domżał-Kędzia and a team of scientists at the University of Wroclaw and InventionBio in Poland have worked to obtain and study low molecular weight Levan. A versatile polysaccharide, Levan is used in a range of applications as dictated by its molecular weight. Therefore, the researchers used OMNISEC to confirm the desired low molecular weight values for cosmetic applications. Additionally, the multi-detector capabilities of OMNISEC allowed the researches to determine the presence of protein and confirm the lack of branching.
Final thoughts
In conclusion, I hope to make these Catching up with OMNISEC posts an annual occurrence. Furthermore, if you are an OMNISEC user and wish to have your publication included in a future Catching up with OMNISEC post, please contact me at kyle.williams@malvernpanalytical.com.