JNC unveils Cellufine MLP resins for large particles at BPI East

JNC Corporation, the Japanese maker of Cellufine chromatography media, showed a resin it is developing, MLP (monolith-like particle), at BioProcess International East 2026, which opened in Boston on September 22. JNC positions MLP as a new pillar of the Cellufine line. It is aimed at a growing problem in downstream processing: the particles that need purifying, such as viral vectors and vaccines, keep getting bigger.

Conventional porous resins were designed with pores sized for relatively small molecules such as antibodies. AAV vectors, virus particles and vaccine antigens are a size class larger. If the pores are too narrow, the target cannot get inside the bead, and binding capacity stays low. MLP uses a bead structure with large pores so that bulky biological particles can reach the interior.

Two variants were shown. MLP DexQ is being studied for separating empty and full AAV capsids, a long-standing difficulty in AAV manufacturing. Empty capsids lack the genetic payload and are linked to immunogenicity risk, so how cleanly they are removed affects product quality. MLP DexS uses dextran sulfate as its ligand and is being tested on large particles such as vaccines.

JNC's data for DexS include a test with inactivated influenza virus, which was concentrated 13-fold while protein impurities fell by 90.3%. In a separate test with human coronavirus OC43, protein impurities fell by 97.3% and virus recovery was 91%. These are JNC's own measurements. MLP is being developed alongside the existing Cellufine range, and JNC has not given a date or a price for commercial-scale supply.

For AAV and vaccine makers, binding capacity is only one test. Pressure tolerance and alkali resistance during cleaning and regeneration (CIP) also decide whether a resin works in production. Anyone weighing MLP for a commercial process will need data on both.