By Caitlin Jones, Research Scientist

If you ask my family what I do for a living, they'll probably tell you I'm a microbiologist. That's because it's what I studied at university, but I usually simplify it a little more and say, "I make very fancy filters that help companies purify medicines." It's not a perfect description, but it's a lot easier than explaining chromatography over the dinner table.

The truth is that I never planned to build a career in protein purification.

Like many graduates, I finished my undergraduate degree in microbiology without a clear idea of where I wanted my career to take me. I knew one thing, though: food microbiology wasn't for me. Instead, I enrolled on an MRes in Cancer Sciences, and that's where I had my first introduction to chromatography and protein purification - a field that would ultimately shape my career.

My research focused on mutations in desmosome-associated proteins and their links to cancer and cardiovascular disease. The project involved transforming bacteria, inducing protein expression and purifying recombinant proteins using chromatography. It was my first real experience of downstream purification, and I quickly realised I enjoyed both the scientific challenge and the problem-solving that came with it. From that point on, I was hooked.

After university, I joined a protein diagnostics company where I progressed from Technician to Protein Purification Specialist. My role involved purifying human immune-related proteins that were either conjugated into chromatography ligands or used to generate antisera for diagnostic kits.

Looking back, it was an ideal place to begin my career. Alongside protein purification, I gained experience working in a GMP environment and developed skills in quality systems, change control and project management. It gave me a much broader understanding of how scientific research translates into products that make a real difference.

Eventually, I decided it was time for a new challenge.

Leaving a job where I felt comfortable and relocating to Cambridge to join Astrea Bioseparations as a Research Scientist was probably the biggest leap I've taken in my career. At my previous company, I felt like I knew everything. Joining Astrea Bioseparations meant stepping into an environment where I suddenly felt like I knew nothing again.

Looking back now, I'm incredibly glad I made that decision.

One thing that still makes me smile is how we used to jokingly refer to R&D scientists in my previous role as "cowboys." From the outside, they always seemed to be experimenting without the endless paperwork we dealt with in a GMP laboratory, and their labs looked far less structured than ours.

Now that I'm part of an R&D team myself, I've seen the other side. Research demands creativity, curiosity and resilience. Experiments don't always go to plan, and often you're trying to solve problems that don't yet have an established solution. While I certainly don't miss filling out endless batch records, I've gained a real appreciation for the balance between scientific freedom and rigorous experimental design.

Today, my role at Astrea Bioseparations focuses on generating application data for our chromatography resin portfolio and evaluating the performance of new resin technologies for increasingly complex therapeutic modalities. Every project is different, which is one of the things I enjoy most about working in R&D.

One project that I'm particularly proud of involved developing an application note demonstrating the use of SP PuraBead® Edge for polishing bispecific antibodies.

It was my first experience working with bispecific antibodies, making it a significant technical challenge. One of the key obstacles was separating mis paired antibody species - closely related impurities that are notoriously difficult to resolve from the target molecule.

Through careful process development, we successfully demonstrated that SP PuraBead® Edge can deliver high-resolution separation, even under challenging conditions with elevated aggregate levels and mis paired antibody species. Seeing the project progress from experimental work in the laboratory to published application data was incredibly rewarding.

The project also gave me opportunities beyond the laboratory. Working alongside colleagues to produce technical literature and discuss our findings with customers helped me better understand how application science supports real-world bioprocess development. It's rewarding to know that the data we generate helps scientists make informed decisions about their downstream purification strategies.

When I first discovered chromatography during my master's degree, I never imagined it would become the focus of my career. Looking back, every step - from university research to diagnostics and now R&D at Astrea Bioseparations, has built on the last, giving me new skills, new perspectives and new challenges to solve.

One of the things I enjoy most about working at Astrea Bioseparations is that no two projects are ever the same. Every new molecule presents a unique purification challenge, and every experiment brings an opportunity to learn something new. Knowing that our work helps customers develop robust purification processes for life-changing therapies makes every challenge worthwhile.