Strategies for protein purification

Protein purification is performed in scales from micrograms and milligrams in research laboratories to kilograms and tonnes in industrial settings. In some laboratories, proteins are purified in parallel, using automated chromatography systems. The efficiency gained by the generic purification approaches based on affinity tagging of the target protein has revolutionized protein purification, and today many proteins can be purified very easily and efficiently.

However, some proteins may be very challenging to purify in an active and stable form, for example, integral membrane proteins, unstable protein complexes, proteins expressed as insoluble aggregates, and proteins with a specific set of post-translational modifications.

Explore different purification methods and learn how to select and combine chromatography methods and purification formats to monitor and evaluate protein purification.