Solutions for oligonucleotide therapeutics and synthesis

What are therapeutic oligonucleotides?

Oligonucleotides (or oligos) are synthetic strands of DNA or RNA that can be used as therapies or diagnostics by binding to a target gene or protein sequence. The fast-growing oligo therapeutics market includes highly targeted antisense DNA and small interfering RNA (siRNA), and it is growing in promise for treating cancers, genetic diseases, and other conditions, as new applications, like CRISPR are being discovered.

Learn more about oligo workflows and solutions for oligonucleotide process development, from scalable oligo synthesis to cleavage and deprotection, purification, and buffer exchange.

Robust and scalable oligo synthesis

Your oligonucleotide workflow starts with flow-through solid-phase synthesis, in which the oligo chain is built from nucleoside phosphoramidites in a cyclic pattern starting from solid supports. We offer systems for automated oligonucleotide synthesis at a range of scales for easy scale up and transfer, reducing time to your next milestone.

We know that oligo synthesis can be difficult — that’s why we prioritized ease of use and scalability when we designed our next-generation oligonucleotide synthesizers. Learn more about how we can support your oligonucleotide processes and scale-up strategy.

Cleavage and deprotection

Once synthesized, the oligonucleotide sequence is cleaved from the solid support. You can choose to remove the 5ʹ-protective dimethoxytrityl (DMTr) group during this step or later during purification to enrich full-length oligonucleotide in reverse-phase chromatography (RPC) or hydrophobic-interaction chromatography (HIC).

We build dedicated hardware solutions for cleavage and deprotection. Learn more about Customized BioProcess™ Solutions.

Oligonucleotide purification

Fully deprotected (DMT-off) oligos can be purified by high-resolution anion exchange chromatography (AIEX). DMTr-on oligos can be enriched by RPC or HIC, thereafter the DMTr group is removed at low pH and the oligo purified further by AIEX. The AIEX step ensures oligos have the desired counter-ion.

Learn more about Capto™ Q ImpRes chromatography resin
Learn more about SOURCE™ 30 Q resin
Learn more about SOURCE™ 30RPC resin

Buffer exchange of oligonucleotides

Buffer exchange removes excess salts and minimizes yield loss after IEX. Size-exclusion chromatography is a good option for desalting at research scale. For process development and manufacturing, tangential flow filtration (TFF) is typically used for buffer exchange. We offer single-use hollow fiber cartridges for efficient and aseptic TFF.