About
Melanin binding is a key driver of ocular drug pharmacokinetics, as it enables prolonged retention of many drugs in pigmented ocular tissues and sustained therapeutic effect. Accordingly, melanin binding affinity is an essential parameter in early-stage ophthalmic drug discovery and pharmacokinetic modeling.
A novel efficient method for melanin binding affinity uses water‑soluble melanin nanoparticles (MNPs) as the substrate, with microscale thermophoresis (MST) to measure dissociation constants (Kd). However, MNP preparation has long been a bottleneck. Conventional lab-scale methods, such as dead‑end filtration (DEF) and freeze‑drying, require two to three days per batch and routinely yield heterogeneous particles with poor fluorescence signals and inconsistent size distributions. These shortcomings propagate directly into MST data variability, undermining reliable Kd determination and cross‑experimental reproducibility.
Concentrate Samples Faster with TFF
In this webinar, we demonstrate how replacing these conventional steps with microfluidic tangential flow filtration (TFF), using the µPulse® system, transforms the workflow. Our workflow reduces processing time to a few hours compared to the 2- 3 days required by DEF and freeze-drying, while delivering consistent, higher-quality results across batches. The resulting MNPs yield higher and more stable fluorescence signals, directly translating into more reliable MST-based Kd determinations with lower data variability and reduced sample consumption.
The methodology described here was developed on the µPulse v3. The same microfluidic TFF approach is now available in the µPulse® v4, with automatic chip tracking, precise TMP control, and recovery down to 250 µL final volume.
What You’ll Learn
- Why conventional MNP preparation methods create bottlenecks in melanin-binding screening workflows
- How the µPulse - TFF system enables production of homogeneous, size-specific melanin nanoparticles in hours rather than days
- How to obtain reliable melanin-binding data for compounds with diverse melanin-binding affinities using minimal sample volumes
- Practical strategies for implementing TFF-based sample preparation in research and development
Who Should Attend
This webinar is best suited for:
- Medicinal chemists, pharmacologists, and drug delivery scientists involved in early-stage drug discovery
- Analytical scientists developing and optimizing in vitro binding assays
- Researchers exploring TFF as a tool beyond conventional biopharmaceutical applications
Why Attend?
Learn how the µPulse - TFF system processes highly heterogeneous samples in nanomedicine research, reducing preparation time from days to hours and delivering the batch consistency needed for data reproducibility.
When
September 16th 2026
Session 1
10:00 AM - 10:30 AM CEST
(09:00 AM - 09:30 AM BST)
Session 2
01:00 PM - 01:30 PM ET
(10:00 AM - 10:30 AM PT)
About the Speaker
Pekka Vanhanen is a doctoral researcher at the University of Eastern Finland and a member of Professor Arto Urtti’s Ocular Drug Delivery Research Group. His research focuses on investigating drug-melanin interactions in vitro and utilizing these interactions to advance therapies for vision-threatening retinal diseases. Beyond ocular drug research, Pekka is interested in the development of drug targeting strategies and drug delivery systems and is actively involved in science communication.