Optimization of Interfacial and Mechanical Stresses during Room Temperature Aerosol Dehydration (RTAD) of Green Fluorescence Protein

ORAL

Abstract

Rapid Room-Temperature Aerosol Dehydration (RTAD) is a new, scalable drying technology for pharmaceutical drug products. Compared to conventional spray drying, RTAD uses smaller droplets that quickly evaporate in ambient temperature, reducing thermal stress for thermally sensitive biologics. In this work, we used green fluorescence protein (GFP) as a model molecule of protein biologics to optimize the RTAD design. We studied the effects of surfactant, droplet size, and flow pattern on GFP fluorescence after drying and reconstitution. We found that the surfactant has a significant impact on the GFP fluorescence, especially when the droplet size is small. GFP fluorescence was also found to be affected by the flow pattern in the drying chamber. Using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations, we identified localized high-speed flow that creates strong circulation zones in the drying chamber, resulting in lower GFP fluorescence.

*This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under STTR Grant No.2304461. The authors acknowledge the use of Princeton's Imaging and Analysis Center, which is partially supported by the Princeton Center for Complex Materials, a National Science Foundation MRSEC program (DMR-1420541). The simulations presented in this article were performed on computational resources managed and supported by Princeton Research Computing. We would like to express our gratitute to Professor Robert Prud'homme for helpful discussions and providing access to the equipment in his laboratory.

Publication: Planned paper title: "Room Temperature Aerosol Dehydration (RTAD) of Green Fluorescence Protein"

Presenters

  • Zehao Pan

    • Princeton University

Authors

  • Zehao Pan

    • Princeton University
  • Junshi Wang

    • Princeton University
  • Howard A Stone

    • Princeton University
  • Maksim Mezhericher

    • Princeton University