Waters new ACQUITY Arc Bio System brings advanced method transfer capabilities to routine bioseparations

Waters Corporation introduced the Waters ACQUITY Arc Bio System, a versatile, iron-free, bio-inert, quaternary liquid chromatograph specifically engineered to enable the efficient transfer and improvement of bioseparation analytical methods regardless of the LC platform on which the original method was developed.

The ACQUITY Arc Bio System is ideally suited to run reversed-phase, ion exchange, size exclusion and hydrophobic interaction LC methods with minimal carryover and maximum recovery of biomolecules. The ACQUITY Arc Bio System’s flow paths are made of non-stainless steel and iron-free bio-inert materials designed to minimise undesirable protein interactions and maximise system robustness under salt and pH extremes. What also sets the instrument apart is the unique Arc Multi-flow path technology which delivers plug-and-play compatibility with HPLC or UHPLC methods through a selectable dwell volume, emulating the dwell volume of the original instrument. This minimises the time it takes 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 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). The system also supports previously developed ‘legacy methods on traditional 3 – 5 micron HPLC columns.

The ACQUITY Arc Bio System is compatible with numerous detectors from Waters, including photodiode array, UV/Vis, fluorescence, refractive index, evaporative light scattering and the ACQUITY QDa mass detector. In addition, the ACQUITY Arc Bio System features novel Auto Blend Plus Technology that automatically blends up to four solvents in any combination or proportion and allows the operator to programme 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.