Conventional viscometers have not been meeting to all demands from researchers under daily operation in pharmaceutical industry. Because
* these viscometers need large sample volume per each measurement even if researchers want to save the sample volume.
* operators need to wait until the temperature in sample solution is stabilized.
* it is difficult to observe small viscosity change in low viscosity range. Especially experiment of low range viscosity in biological field like protein solutions have not been much conducted and it was unknown field for researchers.
In contrast, EMS viscometer has these unique features for Pharmaceutical industry, nowadays it has become one of best solution to solve issues generated by conventional viscometers. Useful functions of EMS viscometer for this industry are as below.
Small sample volume
The EMS viscometer performs viscosity measurements with a sphere probe immersed in sample, it requires just a small sample volume which is enough for the smalll sphere to be fully immersed. 0.3 mL is sufficient for stable viscosity measurement. Besides, optional small volume container enables viscosity measurement with 90μL or more, it is suitable for the viscosity measurement of biological samples such as blood or saliva, and evaluation of immunoglobulin concentration in the development of antibody drugs.
Low viscosity measurement
Conventional rotational viscometer can not ignore mechanicall friction-stress when low viscous sample is measured. In contrast, EMS viscometer can apply small force to rotate sphere probe remotely from outside of disposable container and it does not influence the measurement by friction-stress.
The EMS viscometer can observe the viscosity changes caused by intermolecular interaction which is difficult to be measured by conventional viscometers, thus, it can observe the slight conformational change of sample by protein thermal denaturation as viscosity change.
Sealed and non-contact measurement
Put sample and a sphere probe into the sample container, then cap the sample container.
Operators are no need to touch samples during measurement, the sample container can be discarded after measurement.
The sealed sample container with a cap prevent the sample from exposing to air, safe handling of sample is possible.
Major applications of EMS viscometer for this industry are as below.
Antibody Solutions
The preparation of specific antibodies (immunoglobulin) is time consuming and expensive. In research, newly developed antibodies are therefore available only in very small quantities. In most of cases, immunoglobulin solutions are handled with automatic pipettes. To make sure that automatic pipetting works smoothly, it is required to find out the ideal concentration of the antibody solution. Therefore, the viscosity of the solution in relation to the concentration of the antibody must be determined.
With the EMS Viscometer such studies are easy to perform, even if only 300 µL of the antibody solution are available: The same sample can be used to measure the viscosity of the entire dilution series.