By Maelia Uy-Gomez, Field Application Scientist, Astrea Bioseparations

Engineering first, purification later

When I started college, purification was not on my radar.

I knew I wanted to work in biotech or medicine, to contribute in some meaningful way to the development of medicines and therapies. But I also knew I did not want to be a doctor. My interest leaned more toward problem-solving, systems, and understanding how things work under the hood. That curiosity led me to study bioelectronics engineering, with an early focus on medical devices rather than molecules. 

That direction was shaped, in part, by personal experience. When my brother was born with a diaphragmatic hernia, his early years were marked by surgeries, complications, and long stretches of uncertainty. So many tests were run, so many questions went unanswered. Eventually, imaging revealed what had been missed, and today he is doing well. But the experience left a lasting impression. There have to be better ways to diagnose, to understand, to fix what is going wrong. Devices, imaging, engineering… That felt like the path forward. 

Purification entered the picture later, almost by accident.

During an internship at Genentech in South San Francisco, I found myself working with proteins and mass spectrometry. What surprised me was not just the science, but how much I enjoyed working with proteins themselves. I realized I really liked dealing with proteins. It still felt aligned with my original goal of contributing to research that would eventually support real therapies for patients. 

My first truly hands-on experience with protein purification came next, during a role in MSAT at Bayer. By then, the products were commercial, and the connection to patients felt tangible. The work was different from anything I had studied at university. It was more applied, more constrained, and so much more collaborative. It opened up a new avenue I had not previously considered for my career. 

It was also where I started to appreciate the kinds of details that really matter in practice, and that are easy to underestimate until you run into them yourself. One example that still stands out to me is resin bead size distribution. Early on, I struggled with column packing and could not always pinpoint where the issue was coming from. What I eventually learned is that a wide bead size distribution can make it difficult to pack a uniform bed, leading to pressure and flow issues and poor asymmetry during column performance testing. Simple steps, like de-fining and buffer exchanging a resin slurry before packing, can make a meaningful difference by removing small fines. That awareness has stayed with me, and it often becomes a useful lens for troubleshooting packing and performance challenges. 

From there, I moved to San Diego to work in process development at a CDMO, where the pace accelerated quickly. Multiple projects, modalities, and clients, all working toward different therapeutic goals. It was demanding, customer-facing work, but deeply rewarding, especially when I later saw some of those therapies receive approval. Knowing something you worked on might actually make it to patients down the line changes how you think about the work.

A broader view today

Today, as a Field Application Scientist at Astrea Bioseparations, I continue to build on that foundation, but with a broader view of purification than I ever expected. My role has expanded my exposure beyond monoclonal antibodies and recombinant proteins to lentiviral vectors, plasmid DNA, serums, and a wide range of biomolecules. While I am no longer in the lab day to day, I am still deeply involved in the science. I support customers directly, answer technical questions in real time, develop technical content, and stay close to emerging purification strategies across the field. 

Collaboration is a huge part of what makes that possible. I work closely with fellow FASs around the world to stay aligned on how we approach customer challenges. I partner with the Sales team to provide technical support and context, and I work with product management and R&D to stay current on experiments, data, and new developments so we can share accurate, relevant information with customers. That constant cross-functional exchange shapes how I think about problems and keeps the work grounded in real-world needs.

Curiosity about what comes next

My engineering background still shows up in how I approach those problems. Without a traditional biochemistry training, I tend to break processes down into systems, question assumptions, and look for alternative paths when standard approaches do not quite fit. It can make things harder at first, but it also helps me see solutions other people might miss.

Lately, a lot of my curiosity has been focused on next-generation resins and chromatography devices. As biomolecules become more complex, it has been fascinating to watch the landscape evolve, from new affinity ligands designed for emerging modalities to membrane-based approaches that enable process intensification. We know why some resins are tried and true, but it is exciting to think about how purification strategies will continue to change, and what those advances could mean for drug manufacturing. 

On a more day-to-day level, one area I have really come to love is mixed-mode chromatography optimization. With so many parameters to work with, including pH, conductivity, buffer systems, load density, and ligand chemistry, mixed-mode resins are incredibly powerful but also challenging to troubleshoot. You cannot always predict how a change will affect molecule-resin interactions, especially when multiple mechanisms are in play. That trial-and-error, exploratory aspect is what makes it fun for me. It feels like science in its purest form.

The conversations that keep me learning

What ultimately keeps the work exciting is the people. Talking directly with customers. Hearing about new therapeutic ideas. Learning how different teams approach the same challenge in completely different ways. One of my favorite quotes is, “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I do not know,” and that feels especially true in purification right now. Every conversation teaches me something new or reveals a gap in my understanding, which gives me an excuse to dig deeper.

And that, for me, is exactly the point.

Curious about a purification strategy or troubleshooting an issue? Our Field Application Scientists are just a message away, either by using our chat feature in the bottom right hand corner, or sending an email, here.