Professor Frey provides consulting services to industry in the areas of chromatographic process development, protein purification method development, and adsorption and ion-exchange process development. Specific topics of particular interest include the following:

• Chromatofocusing process development: Professor Frey and his co-workers at UMBC have established arguably the premier expertise in the world on the technique of chromatofocusing. This method, which combines the best features of isoelectric focusing and chromatography, can be applied to a wide variety of separation problems in the biotechnology field at all scales of operation, ranging from process-scale applications to proteomics. The method is particularly useful for resolving protein structural variants having nearly identical properties.

• Computer simulations of chromatographic methods: Professor Frey has developed the only computer modeling software available commercially for chromatography that rigorously accounts for the dynamic behavior of pH transitions that are traveling through the column. pH transitions of this type are sometimes intentionally produced, such as in the technique of chromatofocusing or for elution in affinity chromatography, and are sometimes inadvertent, such as when they are caused by gradients in ionic strength during ion-exchange chromatography. Regardless of their source, pH transitions traveling inside the column are often important to account for when developing a chromatographic process, and the software developed by Professor Frey provides an accurate method to accomplish this. The software developed by Professor Frey is also useful for the development of general ion-exchange processes where the fluid-phase pH must be accounted for, such as processes for wastewater treatment involving weak-electrolyte ion exchangers or weak-electrolyte solutes such as phosphate or carbonate ions.

• Slurry and dry packing methods for chromatographic columns: The packing of chromatographic columns with adsorbent materials is critically important for the development of effective chromatographic methods. Consulting services are offered in this area for all scales operation, including capillary chromatography, standard-scale HPLC, and process-scale chromatography.

• Applications of mixed-mode chromatographic packings: New generations of column packings are being offered by various manufacturers that incorporate more than one mode of retention mechanism, such as a combination of ion-exchange and hydrophobic interactions. Although these types column packings offer new possibilities for achieving efficient separations, it can be difficult to optimize their performance due to the complexities of the interactions that are involved. Professor Frey offers consulting related to the use of these types of column packings for a variety of purposes in the biotechnology field.