CPSA Digest 2003

Day 2

Vendor Session - Drug Discovery Technologies & Applications

High Throughput Microfluidic HPLC-UV System

Microcolumn HPLC has become a complementary technique to conventional analytical HPLC, based on the ability to use extremely minute sample sizes at low volumetric flow rates. Unfortunately there are also significant barriers to microcolumn HPLC that have limited its adoption for a broader range of applications. These limitations include poor flow control, reduced separation efficiencies due to extra-column broadening, reduced absorption sensitivity of low volume flow cells and reduced robustness relative to conventional systems. We will describe a microscale HPLC system optimized for 300 micron i.d. columns. This system makes use of a microfabricated 45 nanoliter flow cell for UV detection (200-380 nm). This microcolumn HPLC system has been designed to have minimal extra column broadening and provides separation efficiencies that are equivalent to or better than those achieved with conventional systems. The system also allows rapid separations with fast re-equilibration. Application of the NanoLC to measurement of compound lipophilicity using chromatographic hydrophobicity index (CHI) will be presented. Throughput in single-channel systems of 60 compounds per hour has been achieved, allowing throughput approaching 500 compounds per hour in an 8-channel multiplexed format.

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