Microporous membrane adsorbers: basic concepts and recent developments

Fig. 1. SEM picture of a Sartobind Q membrane and a Q Sepharose bead. A new generation of membrane adsorbers which can process fluids with a large particle burden, especially cell culture supernatants are presented. Devices with different sizes from benchtop applications to a semi-technical scale were operated. The process scale and lab scale devices were equipped with macroporous membranes bearing ion exchange or affinity ligands resp. These include Cibacron blue 3GA or iminodiacetic acid as a chelator for transition metal ions. Larger molecules like Protein A or Streptavidin were easily coupled to chemically activated membranes, forming powerful tools for isolation and purification of target biomolecules.