E24: Supercritical Fluid Chromatography (SFC): A Powerful and Greener Tool for Analytical and Preparative Separations

One-Day Course
Date to be announced; 8:30am – 5:00pm

Dr. Yingru Zhang, Lotus Separations, Princeton, NJ
Dr. Michael Hicks, Merck & Co., Inc, Rahway, NJ

COURSE DESCRIPTION
SFC is becoming a mainstream technique in recent years for its complementarity to HPLC with orthogonal selectivity, enhanced speed and efficiency, and lower solvent usage, thus “greener”.  This course not only introduces SFC theories but also teaches SFC method development with practical instructions on successful implementation of SFC as an everyday separation technique to compliment other chromatography.  First, we cover SFC principals necessary to develop successful SFC methods taking participants step by step through the instrument configuration and setup, column and mobile phase selections, and SFC parameters optimization for both chiral and achiral applications. Second, we will guide the participants through physical properties and chromatography attributes to understand the power and potential of SFC.  Finally, we cover the intrinsic advantages of modern SFC technology and its expansion to a broader spectrum of SFC applications for more experienced chromatographers.  SFC applications in pharmaceuticals, food chemistry, cannabis, lipids, and peptides will be discussed.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND
This course is open to any analysts and chromatographers looking to enhance their knowledge and skillset to include SFC. Current SFC users looking to develop or improve their method development knowledge will find this course helpful for analytical and preparative applications.

TOPICS
  1. Introduction to Supercritical Fluid Chromatography
    a. Instrumentation setup and configurations
    b. Similarity and difference from GC and HPLC
  2. SFC Method Development Strategy
    a. Stationary phase selection – from recent advances and systemic studies
    b. Role of modifiers and additives in packed column SFC – the saver of SFC
    c. Temperature and pressure – a new dimension of power and flexibility
    d. Detection – UV, CD, ELSD, CAD, MS and FID
  3. SFC Physical Attributes and Practical Applications
    a. Enantioselective separation for problem solving-analytical challenges (SFC/UV/CD)
    b. Achiral applications-orthogonal selectivity
    c. Preparative SFC and simulated moving bed (SMB)-SFC
    d. Bioanalysis using SFC/MS/MS
  4. The Future of SFC – Bridging the Gaps for Unity in Separation Science
    a. Newer applications of SFC in the Pharmaceutical Industry
    b. SFC for GMP applications from drug substance to drug product
    c. Popular misconceptions about SFC
    d. Current issues and barriers to consider when contracting out methods

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTORS
Dr. Yingru Zhang is currently the Chief Scientific Officer at Lotus Separations, LLC at Princeton University, that is specialized in SFC development and applications for the pharmaceutical R&D and academic research.  Yingru obtained his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry under Prof. Aronson at City University of New York in 1990.  Since then, he has been working in the pharmaceutical industry including at AHP-Wyeth-Pfizer for 12 years for Drug Development, then at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) for 16 years as a Senior Principal Scientist in Drug Discovery. He has extensive experience in SFC and established and managed the Separation and Physical Science Groups with leading edge SFC capabilities at Wyeth and BMS.  Dr. Zhang pioneered Simulated Moving Column (SMC) technique for SFC and HPLC and developed Multi-Column Parallel Screening with Circular Dichroism Signal Pooling for rapid chiral method development. He has over 30 publications in peer reviewed journals and gave many invited presentations at the international conferences.

Dr. Michael Hicks has over 20 years of pharmaceutical research experience with a diversified background ranging from early discovery to pharmaceutical pre-clinical R&D.  Dr. Mike started in Analytical Research and Development in 1989 at Merck, received his PhD from Seton Hall University in 1997.  He taught an Advanced Biomedical Engineering Graduate Laboratory at the Stevens Institute of Technology as adjunct faculty on Saturdays for ten years.  He has been working in Separations Sciences area for over 16 years and is currently in the Analytical Chemistry and Enabling Technologies group in the Analytical Research & Development Department in Merck Research Labs at Merck & Co. Inc. in Rahway as an SFC subject matter expert. He is an active member of Green Chemistry Analytical sub- team within the ACS Green Chemistry Pharmaceutical Roundtable comprised of over 15 pharma companies and the Enabling Technologies Consortium Compact LC subteam with 8 contributing companies.