Tosoh
customer magazine
TB:
Professor Massolini, could you first of all give us a short summa-
ry of the research activities of your lab?
GM:
The research activities of my lab are essentially directed towards
the development and application of novel methods in pharmaceutical
and biomedical analysis by high-performance liquid chromatography
coupled with diode array and mass spectrometric detectionWe have
been working for a long time in the development of stationary phases
based on immobilized proteins/enzymes. These HPLC stationary pha-
ses have been used in our lab as chiral selectors and as biochemical
probes for the determination of stereoselective ligand-protein binding
interactions, ligand-ligand interactions and for the determination of
binding constants. We carried out innovative researches on the ex-
ploitation of immobilized enzymes as bioreactors in liquid chroma-
tography and we have been involved in the development of frontal
affinity chromatography-MS methods for drug discovery.
TB: Which areas besides the development of protein-based stationa-
ry phases are you working on?
GM:
The experience in the field of immobilized macromolecules
allowed us to direct the scientific interest to the development of
bioreactors for the on-line digestion of proteins. We have developed
new on-line HPLC-MS systems for the digestion/identification of
proteins with particular regards to the characterization of post-
translational modifications (glyco- and phospho-proteins) and for the
analysis of biopharmaceutical such as new glyco-vaccines against
tuberculosis.
Further research activities are devoted to the development and va-
lidation of HPLC methods for food products quality control and au-
thenticity testing, cosmetic products quality control and support to
technological development, and pharmaceutical analysis for the as-
say of active compounds as well as for impurities profiling and cha-
racterization.
TB:Your group is very open to co-operations with industrial partners.
Where do you see the values in this type of projects?
GM:
We enjoy close collaborations with thought leaders in both
academia and industry. These collaborations provided excellent input
for the development of our research ideas. Discussion with experts
from companies producing columns with innovative stationary
phases, such as Tosoh, enabled us to improve the chromatographic
methods that we design to tackle pharmaceutical and biomedical
problems. HPLC columns provided by industrial partners are also
used for the training of students in pharmaceutical analysis and help
to overcome insufficient financial resources.
TB: What do you think are the key challenges for the analytics of
pharmaceuticals today?
GM:
The advent of protein-based bio-pharmaceuticals and antibody
drug conjugates (ADCs) has resulted in increased reliance on the
chromatographic and spectrometric techniques used to determine the
key quantitative and qualitative attributes of such complex therapeutic
entities. HILIC, in conjunction with tandem mass spectrometry
(MS/MS), has steadily gaining acceptance in the analysis of polar
compounds from complex biological matrices.
Another important issue is the characterization of genotoxic impuri-
ties and their impact on the pharmaceutical industry. There is a de-
mand of appropriate strategies used to select and develop analytical
methods relevant for the particular impurities identified. Also in this
context HILIC as an HPLC mode orthogonal to reversed-phase, can be
used by itself or in multidimensional approaches, for the separation
of a variety of pharmaceuticals and their impurities in both R&D and
Drug Discovery laboratories.
TB: Professor Massolini, thank you for the fruitful discussions here
in Pavia. We are looking forward to future results of our ongoing co-
operation.
Pharmaceutical Analysis Laboratory -
Department of Drug Sciences, University of Pavia
The University of Pavia, Italy, is one of the oldest Universities in Italy. Alessandro Volta (1745-1827) and Camillo Golgi
(1843-1926, Nobel Prize in 1906) are two of many of famous professors who taught in Pavia. The Department of Drug
Sciences is renowned for the high quality of the research and applicationwork and continuously publishes a broad
range of scientific papers under the guidance of Professor Gabriella Massolini, the director of the department.
Gabriella Massolini is responsible for the lab devoted to pharmaceutical analysis. We met her and her co-workers
in Pavia to discuss about the development of the department and current topics of their research activities.
06
Featured
LAB
Contact for Scientific Cooperations at Tosoh Bioscience GmbH:
P.D. Dr. Egbert Müller [Technical Director]
If you want to know more about the work of this group, attend the
Lecture of Prof. Massolini at the PBA 2015 Conference in Tiblisi, Georgia.
