Virus Filtration in Downstream Bioprocessing: Prefilter Strategies and Next-Generation Membrane Technology

<p class="font_8">Virus filtration remains a cornerstone of viral clearance strategies in biopharmaceutical downstream processing, providing robust, removal of both large and small viruses. As therapeutic modalities and feed streams grow increasingly diverse and challenging to filter, selecting the right filtration strategy has become critical to maintaining both product safety and process economics. This presentation offers an overview of virus filtration for process development scientists and bioprocessing professionals. </p>
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<p class="font_8">We'll begin with the role virus filters play within a broader purification platform. From there, the focus shifts to why prefilters matter for protecting virus filter capacity and throughput, how performance varies across different monoclonal antibody feed streams, and how to use pH and conductivity conditions to guide prefilter selection. </p>
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<p class="font_8">The talk will also introduce Viresolve Pro-S, a next-generation virus filter designed to improve throughput for difficult-to-filter feed streams and reduce adsorptive fouling compared to earlier-generation devices, with a brief look at the underlying membrane chemistry driving these improvements.</p>

Speaker Bio

Jaime De Souza is a Senior Process Development Scientist at MilliporeSigma, where he focuses on downstream process development across a range of biotherapeutic modalities. He earned his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 2014 and his M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Over more than ten years in the biotech industry, he has developed downstream processes spanning lysis, filtration, chromatography, tangential flow filtration, with depth of experience in plasmid DNA process development. Jaime is passionate about turning process development insights into practical guidance.

Presentation time

December 8, 2026
9:25 am - 10:35am EST

Abstract

Virus filtration remains a cornerstone of viral clearance strategies in biopharmaceutical downstream processing, providing robust, removal of both large and small viruses. As therapeutic modalities and feed streams grow increasingly diverse and challenging to filter, selecting the right filtration strategy has become critical to maintaining both product safety and process economics. This presentation offers an overview of virus filtration for process development scientists and bioprocessing professionals.

We'll begin with the role virus filters play within a broader purification platform. From there, the focus shifts to why prefilters matter for protecting virus filter capacity and throughput, how performance varies across different monoclonal antibody feed streams, and how to use pH and conductivity conditions to guide prefilter selection.

The talk will also introduce Viresolve Pro-S, a next-generation virus filter designed to improve throughput for difficult-to-filter feed streams and reduce adsorptive fouling compared to earlier-generation devices, with a brief look at the underlying membrane chemistry driving these improvements.