Troy Voelker, PhD, is the Senior Director of Laboratory Operations at Aliri’s Bioanalysis lab in Salt Lake City, Utah. He leads all laboratory divisions, including method development, method validation, instrument operations, and production groups.
“I’ve been at this site for 18 years. I started as a method development scientist and currently oversee all the laboratory operations,” Troy says.
Aliri Bioanalysis provides a range of bioanalytical services to the pharmaceutical and biotech industry, supporting the workflow from early-stage discovery through NDA submission. They are recognized as an industry leader for bioanalysis services utilizing platforms such as High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry and traditional LC-MS/MS to identify and quantify drug analytes in sample matrices such as plasma, serum, and various tissues. As with any bioanalysis method, clean samples are crucial for good analyte recovery. Additionally, demonstrating consistent and reproducible extraction recovery is necessary to ensure method robustness.
ISOLUTE® SLE+ Supported Liquid Extraction products have proven successful in achieving this.
“We typically look to the ISOLUTE® SLE+ for fast throughput sample clean up. In my experience, Biotage’s sample prep products have proven to be reliable and accessible,” Troy explains.
This is important as pharmaceutical companies turn to contract research organizations (CROs), like Aliri, for fast turnaround on their drug discovery and development services.
“When I assess SPE solutions, there are some factors I consider upfront, and one is how reproducible the product is batch-to-batch. I have never seen an issue with Biotage’s plates, whether SLE or SPE — they have always been very reliable. A second factor is accessibility. If I’m worried that I can’t keep your product on my shelf to get samples through, then that’s a concern that I would have to relay over to a sponsor,” Troy says.
Aliri’s Salt Lake City site builds on more than 25 years of foundational expertise and has been an industry leader in the bioanalytical support of RNA and DNA therapeutics. Troy is notably recognized as Aliri’s subject matter expert for oligo-nucleotide bioanalysis having led development and validation for this therapeutic class for the past10 years.
“The challenge is getting to as clean of a sample in as few steps as possible. Everyone needs high throughput, and everyone is trying to cut both time and expense out of the process.” Troy explained.
He spoke about the impact of integrating the TurboVap® 96 Dual plate evaporator in Aliri’s oligonucleotides bioanalysis workflow. “We do a lot of oligonucleotides work here, and there is a dry-down step associated with those methods. Typically, we were looking at evaporation times taking anywhere from 1-1.5 hours being fast, to 2.5-3 hours being somewhat typical. With the TurboVap® 96 Dual, our main focus was to expedite that part of the process.”
The TurboVap® 96 Dual is an automated single and dual-chamber well-plate evaporation system. It is designed for well plates including 24,48, and 96 well plates and can evaporate solvent levels from microliters up to 10 mL per well. The system utilizes an intelligent evaporation technology by applying pre-heated nitrogen gas through the top manifold directly into wells, while simultaneously maintaining a cushion of heated air via the bottom plate heater, thereby achieving rapid and consistent evaporation while reducing gas consumption. The intuitive user interface allows users to effortlessly program and save methods with flow ramping according to their evaporation needs.
Before the launch of the TurboVap® 96 Dual system, Aliri — formerly known as Pyxant Labs — partnered with Biotage to test the system during its development.
“We set up the system and programmed it. I challenged one of our MD Scientists to see how fast he can dry down a plate of sample extracts from an oligo SPE workflow. It was dry in 45 minutes which was twice as fast as our fastest previous time. That was exciting!” Troy says.
“We looked at programming the system as a walk-away device that would free up our analysts from having to systematically go back and raise the plate or increase the flow. It was a time-saver that allowed our analysts to concentrate more at the bench and worry less about getting samples ready for injection.”
Troy described the versatility of the TurboVap® 96 Dual in routine bioanalysis applications, emphasizing its effectiveness in any procedure that requires evaporation or concentration. Whether analysts need to evaporate aqueous or organic solvents, the system not only reduces evaporation times but also allows users to step away and return to a completed process. He further explains: “If you need to be careful about gas flow, or temperature, you can easily program that in. It even has a green light that lights up when it’s done so you can see it visually from a distance. As I stated before, it’s hard to get excited about something that would seem as boring as an evaporator, but the TurboVap® 96 Dual is an exciting system that you wouldn’t know it’s great until you have tried it.”
Aliri Bioanalysis is a leading bioanalytical contract research organization with three sites in Colorado Springs, CO, Salt Lake City, UT, and Loos, France. Aliri provides innovative bioanalytical lab, spatial bioanalysis, and biology solutions for all stages of drug development helping companies advance molecules from discovery through clinical development and NDA approval.
https://aliribio.com/about/about-us/