Two instruments for organic synthesis are available from Analytix, one specifically for oligonucleotide synthesis – wavePREP, and the second a multireaction synthesis workstation – Xelsius.

Oligonucleotide synthesis

The demand for the production of oligonucleotides is growing rapidly. Oligos are produced using solid-phase synthesis that offers an elevated yield of purified product. In order to be used in downstream applications, they must be cleaved from the solid support and the protecting groups removed. Nowadays, the synthesis process is automated while the post-processing, cleavage and deprotection (C&D) plus evaporation steps are still carried out manually. This creates a bottleneck in the process affecting productivity and efficiency.

The new Milestone wavePREP from Analytix provides C&D plus removes the evaporation stage in a single step in under 90 minutes saving up to 95% of the processing time. The system can be used with up to 6 deep well plates, multiple small columns, or larger columns up to 700ml. The process uses a gas phase method and all reaction conditions are accurately controlled to maximise the quality and yield.

The laboratory workflow becomes more efficient as most of the steps are automated and software controlled such as the lowering of the well plates or columns into the reactor, reagent addition, draining and venting. The automatic loading and unloading of reagents ensures there is no operator exposure to chemicals such as ammonia. The system provides excellent C&D yields even with tricky protection groups and linkers and eliminates cross contamination.

Multireaction synthesis workstation

Chemical and pharmaceutical product development often requires synthesis of multiple molecules and screening of multiple conditions using small scale reactions. Each experiment uses a unique setup that can include heating, cooling, and reagent addition for process optimisation and reaction development. Each reaction setup uses valuable laboratory or fume hood space.

The LabTech Xelsius from Analytix offers synthesis of multiple molecules and screening of multiple conditions using ten reactor positions simultaneously in a single unit. The reaction cells provide independent heating, fast ramping, cooling, and stirring with a range of -20°C to +150°C with an accuracy of 0.1°C. Glass or PTFE reaction vials can accommodate different volumes from 1 to 30ml. An integral touch screen monitor provides control and a complete overview of the status of all ten cells. A small footprint and a PTFE coated housing enables installation in a fume hood that might also be used for aggressive solvents or acids.

Accessories include a dosing station, external temperature sensor, and 5-port reaction cap allowing a wide range of continuous-flow and multi-stage processes as well as sub-sampling, gas bubbling, and gas addition. Applications include parallel synthesis, crystallisations, reaction optimisation, drug discovery, solubility determination, degradation studies, catalyst supported reactions, design of experiment studies, crystallisation experiments, and PCR reactions.