Research & Development

AqasPrime is a capillary monolith column, a unique design that houses a separation substrate within a capillary tube that’s just under a meter long and has an inner diameter of 100 microns. What sets AqasPrime apart is its dual recognition function. It’s capable of identifying both the lipophilic and hydrophilic parts of a target compound. This feature allows it to simultaneously and remarkably separate a diverse range of components, such as those found in plants.

Please refer to the following examples to get a better understanding of AqasPrime’s capabilities.

It has come to our attention that a significant challenge faced by many laboratories working with plants and other organisms is the daily disposal of solvents used in liquid chromatography. Consider this - if you’re using an autosampler and conducting continuous measurements, you’ll find yourself generating three drums of liquid waste annually. However, with AqasPrime, this volume can be dramatically reduced to the equivalent of a single beer can. Therefore, AqasPrime not only cuts down on the costs and complexities of solvent disposal in research activities, but it also plays a crucial role in significantly reducing the environmental impact of solvent incineration.

In response to the pressing issue of pharmaceutical seed depletion, the unregulated harvesting of naturally occurring plants in remote regions such as the Himalayas has escalated into a global concern, jeopardizing forest conservation efforts. By utilizing AqasPrime, it is believed that a sample size of less than 1g is sufficient, thereby offering a potential solution to this significant international problem.

The following will introduce the major benefits of using AqasPrime, using the example of seed discovery in drug discovery.

The following will introduce the major benefits of using AqasPrime, using the example of seed discovery in drug discovery. Drug discovery research consists of (1) exploratory research, (2) development research, and (3) clinical research, which includes three stages of clinical trials from Phase I to Phase III. ‘Seed discovery’ is situated at the beginning of the drug discovery process and is a crucial step in searching for potential compounds using all available methods.

Once a candidate compound is identified, it moves on to the development research stage. Here, the physicochemical and biological properties of the candidate compound are determined and evaluated. Quality and safety are ensured, and industrialization research, including mass synthesis and formulation, is conducted in preparation for drug application and approval. However, many candidate compounds do not make it past this stage, making ‘seed discovery’ a challenging task.

By using AqasPrime, it is possible to simultaneously separate nearly 200 components, significantly enhancing the efficiency of the ‘seed search’.

In an effort to provide an efficient method for analyzing an infinite number of sample species, AQAS intends to conduct online mass spectrometry data measurements of separated sample components and compile the results into a database. It’s possible to obtain measurement results for approximately 200 sample components in a single run, and with the capacity to measure 10 samples per day, a substantial amount of mass spectrometry data can be amassed. We hold high hopes for this endeavor to create a comprehensive database of this data.