New Columns Accelerate LC/MS Analysis of Synthetic Oligonucleotides

Phenomenex Inc. introduces Clarity® Oligo-MS™ columns for rapid and efficient LC/MS characterization and quality control of synthetic RNA and DNA. Based on the company’s core-shell particle technology, the new C18 columns deliver significantly shorter run times than traditional media, along with increased resolution and sensitivity. With the high resolving power of Clarity Oligo-MS, impurities in complex synthetic mixtures can be separated from the peak of interest in less than 10 minutes.

These new Oligo-MS columns, which are part of the Clarity BioSolutions portfolio, are packed with either 2.6µm or 1.7µm particles, enabling high efficiency on any HPLC or UHPLC platform. The Clarity Oligo-MS 2.6µm columns operate at reduced backpressures compared to other oligonucleotide-specific columns, delivering UHPLC performance on any LC instrument, and methods are easily transferable. The Clarity Oligo-MS 1.7µm columns boost the performance of existing sub-2µm methods on high-pressure systems.

“LC/MS is the analysis technique of choice in synthetic oligo quality control as well as for the characterization of oligo-based therapeutics and their metabolites,” explained Cathy Cordova, marketing manager for Phenomenex. “With our new core-shell particle technology, we bring significant improvements to this process in the areas of sample throughput and MS sensitivity.” Phenomenex maintains a dedicated team of R&D, marketing, sales and service experts to support its Clarity BioSolutions product line for synthetic oligonucleotide purification and characterization.

With traditional, fully porous particles, efficiency decreases as flow rate increases, resulting in loss of resolution and sensitivity and longer overall analysis time. The Phenomenex core-shell technology enables high resolution and sensitivity over an extended linear velocity without generating excessive backpressure. These columns provide roughly twice the efficiency of fully porous 3-micron columns and three times the efficiency of fully porous 5-micron columns, with significantly lower limits of detection and quantitation.