Membrane chromatography: fundamentals and application for bioseparations

Despite the development of new convective stationary phases with improved binding capacity, the use of membrane adsorbers for capture chromatography is still limited to niche applications as the workhorse of downstream processing is played by bead based chromatography. Conventional packed bead columns are preferred due to their higher binding capacity even if they suffer from several limitations such as high pressure drop, slow mass transfer through the diffusive pores and strong dependence of the binding capacity on flow rate. However, a proper comparison with convective media columns, packed with membranes of monoliths, should be made in terms of productivity. An overview of the recent work performed in our laboratories for protein isolation and purification with affinity membranes will be discussed here. Among those two different case studies will be presented using plasminogen and monoclonal antibodies as target molecules.