Product News: Bio-Rad’s New Software Makes Purifying Proteins with NGC™ Chromatography Systems Even Easier

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. have released ChromLab™ Software Version 4.0. When used with the NGC Chromatography System, the software version continues the ChromLab legacy of enabling researchers to purify their proteins with ease.

Traditionally, purifying proteins with chromatography systems has been time-consuming and laborious due to the complexity of the instruments involved. Properly plumbing the system can be daunting and designing an experiment requires sketching out the purification schemes. With a design that uses LEDs to guide plumbing, known as the Point-to-Plumb™ feature, and software that allows users to visualize their purification process, the NGC family of chromatography systems has made protein purification more accessible to protein purification experts and non-experts alike.

"The NGC Chromatography System really allows us to switch between users and purification schemes very quickly and easily,” said Dr. Christopher Fraser, an assistant professor at a public university in California. “When you use the Point-to-Plumb feature, we particularly like the little LED lights that light up, allowing you to connect different pipes and tubing to each part of the valves, for example. It just follows that out, one step at a time, and was very, very easy to do."

Beyond simplifying the experience, ChromLab Software’s scouting wizard allows researchers to easily automate method optimization by screening different conditions (for example, pH) to find the one that gives the best purity and yield. In addition, researchers who routinely purify proteins using a multicolumn purification scheme can benefit from the software’s automation of this process. Once the software has identified the optimal conditions, researchers can choose templates in the software to adapt for their specific purification scheme. Automating method optimization and multicolumn purification saves time, reduces human error, and more importantly allows scientists to focus on their research.

ChromLab 4.0 Software also enables control of multiple NGC Systems from a single computer, further reducing the system’s footprint.

Additional key benefits of ChromLab 4.0 Software include:

• Simpler purification — provides intuitive navigation to all key functions, including instrument setup and calibration, method development, and data analysis
• Quick onboarding of new users — comes with customizable prebuilt methods that enable researchers to bypass developing their own, with no need to learn specialized programming
• Easier data analysis — offers the ability to integrate peaks with a single click, analyze data from multiple runs, and locate proteins of interest with fraction heat maps

NGC users running earlier versions of ChromLab can upgrade to Version 4.0 for free. Additionally, there is a User Management Edition that provides the ability to assign user permission levels to analysis files for multisystem and multi-user environments that require storing and sharing of methods. Regulated labs can buy the Security Edition to remain U.S. FDA 21 CFR Part 11 compliant.