Turkish Scientists Achieve Major Breakthrough

# Important Achievement by Turkish Scientists Turkish scientists have succeeded in producing HPLC columns in Gebze—a product that experienced major supply chain disruptions especially during the pandemic period, sells abroad for between USD 500 and 1,200 per 0.5 gram, and is a crucial foundation for the pharmaceutical industry. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Ceyhan Gören, Faculty Member at Gebze Technical University's Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Basic Sciences, and his team have seen the fruits of their long-standing research efforts.

"HPLC technology has found an incredible place for itself in the world"

Prof. Dr. Ahmet Ceyhan Gören, explaining HPLC and the production process, stated: "When we think of chromatography, the first person who comes to mind is a Russian scientist named Mikhail Semyonovic Tsvet, who first mentioned it in his lectures in 1903. Approximately 66 years after this date, at a congress organized by the University of Houston in Las Vegas, we first became acquainted with HPLC. From that day to this, HPLC technology has found an incredible place for itself in the world. Particularly analytical chemists have begun to show great interest in this field. For us, this is work that began in 2021 in this technopark area. We have essentially been experiencing HPLC applications in analytical chemistry applications professionally for 28 years. We made a decision with our colleagues and said, 'Why shouldn't we produce this product in Turkey?' From time to time, we faced supply chain difficulties with this product. Especially during the COVID-19 period, there were serious supply chain issues," he stated.

Gören, noting that they focused on how to transfer their knowledge and experience, continued as follows:

"We set it as a goal for ourselves to produce HPLC sorbent and 2.25 column packing systems here. There are essentially three main elements in HPLC column production. One of them is the synthesis of the substance inside the columns we call HPLC. This is the most fundamental point of HPLC column production. We start with a grain of sand for the material inside, and after various synthesis stages, we synthesize the packing material for whichever column we focus on as our target. The second stage is placing the sorbent we have produced into a steel tube and filling it. We need to place our material correctly into the steel tube. After doing this, one of the most important elements is being able to produce the same product each time. In this center, at Gebze Technical University Technopark, with the work we have carried out, we have succeeded in all stages from the first stage to the last stage of the entire system."