Oligonucleotide Separations Technology from Waters Corporation

Waters Corporation (NYSE:WAT) announced today the introduction of two new sets of columns for the purification and analysis of oligonucleotides. The ACQUITY UPLC® OST C₁₈ Columns are specifically designed to work with Waters family of ACQUITY® UltraPerformance LC® products. The XBridge™ OST C₁₈ columns are designed for advanced oligonculeotide HPLC separations. Both products are ideal for purifying and analyzing synthetic oligonucleotides - including siRNA, primers and probes as well as therapeutic drugs made by oligonucleotide manufacturers, diagnostic kit producers, government and university laboratories, and biotechnology companies.

The columns feature sub-3 micron Bridged Ethyl Hybrid (BEH) particle technology and yield significantly better resolution for ion-pair, reversed-phase separations of oligonucleotides than commercially-available columns for the same application. The 1.7 µm particle ACQUITY UPLC OST columns, besides offering improved resolution, offer scientists the speed and sample throughput they have come to expect from Waters UPLC technology.

In tests conducted at key accounts prior to launch, scientists were able to see up to a four-fold improvement in speed of analysis without any reduction in resolution. In one case, a firm with a 60-minute reversed-phase HPLC assay featuring 48 injections (48 hours worth of work) for a 44mer oligonucleotide, reduced its total analysis time to 12 hours. Other accounts that tested the new columns realized similar productivity gains.

Lifetime expectancy of the new columns is greater than 1,000 injections.

Other recently introduced columns in the Waters BEH particle technology line include columns for peptide and amino acid analysis. The columns are now available from Waters worldwide.

Waters exhibited both lines of OST C₁₈ columns at Pittcon 2007, and conducted a seminar titled Successful Separation of Synthetic Oligonucleotides in Less than 5 Minutes. Waters scientists presented a poster featuring applications for the new columns at EuroTIDES in November titled Developing Strategies for the Isolation and Purification of Synthetic Peptides.

For further information, download the product brief below.