Merck Millipore claims new method speeds up purification 75%

Merck Millipore has developed a new purification protocol it claims is 75% faster than traditional techniques used to harvest recombinant proteins.

The new protocol, which is designed for use with the firm’s PureProteome nickel magnetic beads and BugBuster lysis reagent, is a one step process can be completed in 45 minutes according to Merck.

The firm claims the protocol needs less hands-on time than other approaches, and that it "provides greater consistency and results in more reproducible yields." The company also says that using a lysis buffer in combination with magnetic affinity capture beads eliminates the need to clarify lysates by centrifugation, thereby saving operators more time.

Spokesman David Briggs predicted that the method would be of interest to biopharmaceutical firms for whom time is critical, explaining that: "Protein chemists and those developing protein biotherapeutics crucially need a rapid, reproducible small-scale purification process.”

Briggs contrasted this with traditional approaches which he said can take “more than three hours to complete, requiring separate lysis, lysate clarification and purification steps, which can negatively impact protein quality and reproducibility.”