Slalom Chromatography Revisited (Part 1): An Interview With Fabrice Gritti

LCGC International spoke to Fabrice Gritti, consultant scientist at Waters Corporation, about the history of slalom chromatography (SC) and why he decided that the technique was worth re-investigating. The potential benefits of SC, according to Gritti, include identifying RNA impurities when manufacturing mRNA therapeutics, and assisting in the development of new gene and cell therapies, and other biopharmaceutical applications.

In Part 1 Fabrice answers the following questions:

• What is the history of slalom chromatography (SC) and why did you decide to re-investigate this technique?

• Please define SC. What makes SC particularly useful for separating and studying DNA and RNA molecules?

• Can you explain how the separation mechanism for SC differs from other types of chromatography?

• What advances in technology have made SC a more viable technology to analyze DNA and RNA molecules than before?

Biography

Fabrice G. Gritti received a PhD in chemistry and physics of condensed matter from the University of Bordeaux I (France) in 2001. He worked as a research scientist at the University of Tennessee (Knoxville, Tennessee, USA ) from 2002–2014 in the research group of the late Professor Georges Guiochon. He joined Waters Corporation in 2015 where he is currently a consulting scientist.

References

(1) Gritti, F. Ultra-High Pressure Slalom Chromatography: Application to the Characterization of Large DNA and RNA Samples Relevant in Cell and Gene Therapy. J. Chromatogr. A 2024, 1781, 465487. DOI: 10.1016/j.chroma.2024.465487.

(2) Gritti, F. Theore. Theoretical Predictions to Facilitate the Method Development in Slalom Chromatography for the Separation of Large DNA Molecules. J. Chromatogr. A 2024, 1706, 465379. DOI: 10.1016/j.chroma.2024.465379