A systematic approach to the design and development of membrane-based immunoaffinity systems for the purification of recombinant proteins is presented. The preparation and characterization of immunoaffinity membranes are described. The immunoaffinity purification process for recombinant interferon-alpha2a is used as a model system to determine the operational parameters in membrane-based immunoaffinity chromatography. The high volumetric throughput of membranes, combined with the typically fastbinding kinetics of antigen-antibody interactions, enable the purification of recombinant proteins from dilute feed stream in less time, using less antibody than conventional systems. Three recombinant proteins, human interferon-alpha2a, interleukin-2, and interleukin-2 receptor, have been purified efficiently employing membrane-based immunoaffinity chromatography. Overall, membrane-based immunoaffinity chromatography is shown to be a viable and scalable method, ideal for the industrial-scale production of recombinant proteins.
(c) 1992 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.