In my mini memoirs, "Curiouser and curiouser," I look back on a good many years of biochemical dabbling, recounting key milestones and lessons learned along the way. My journey has certainly been one of science but also one of entrepreneurship, business savvy, serendipity, and a little risk taking. Welcome to Chapter 2.

By Steve Burton, President and Chief Scientific Officer, Astrea Bioseparations

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Chapter 2: Wallpaper plans and Manx manufacturing

I remember our first meeting to this day. We looked on the map to find an equidistant location and selected a pub in the Peak District, where the initial business plan was sketched out not on a napkin or cigarette packet but on the back of a piece of wallpaper.

Affinity Chromatography Limited was founded in 1987!

Cambridge was the natural place for our research and development operations; we already had strong connections with the university and quickly set up a laboratory. But manufacturing in Cambridge made less sense, so we started thinking about locations in the UK with strong local government support. At that time, Ken Jones was living on the Isle of Man and had a chance conversation with someone from the Manx government. Among other things, he discovered a keen interest in attracting and supporting technology companies who could provide high-value manufacturing jobs on the island. One very attractive start-up grant later and we were able to construct our first production unit on the Isle of Man.

Suddenly, in a time span counted in months, my career had exploded out from chemistry and biochemistry into manufacturing and commercial concerns. It was certainly challenging at times, but I’m strongly motivated by being told that I cannot do something. We hired a highly skilled production manager (who was ex-ICI, like Vivian) and so, although we had a relatively small team, we had the knowledge to succeed to the high standards demanded by the pharma industry.

The first commercialized product range manufactured at our Isle of Mann facility was based on new and improved versions of the colored affinity adsorbents I’d studied previously. Specifically, these so-called “mimetic ligand adsorbents” had been re-engineered for additional stability and improved performance. Like the original albumin capture affinity adsorbent I’d worked on, some of them are still used today – though they sit among a vast array of products that span protein purification to gene therapy manufacture.

Notably, MiMode™ PuraBead^® mixed-mode resins – Astrea Bioseparations’ most recent product launch – also owe their existence to the original mimetic ligand adsorbents, as Chris Sadler noted in his “Mixed messages” article.

Missed Chapter 1: “When I were a lad”? Read it here. 

Chapter 3: "Royal recognition" coming soon... 

First published for The Purification People newsletter, connecting downstream professionals.

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