Recent developments in the use of group-specific ligands for affinity bioseparations

One of the major obstacles encountered in the commercialization of biochemical products is their separation and purification since it can represent up to 60% of the total production costs^l. Using conventional methods such as filtration, centrifugation, extraction, precipitation, and chromatography usually requires many separation steps in order to isolate biomolecules with similar physicochemical properties. Conventional techniques suffer from a lack of selectivity for a specific biomolecule in a complex mixture, especially when the biomolecules in the mixture have similar properties. A dramatic increase in selectivity is obtained when the method of recovery is based on affinity interactions between the desired macromolecule and its complementary ligand.