Research Initiation: Thin-Gel Composite Membranes for the Separation of Biological Molecules

本研究的目的是开发用于生物分离凝胶色谱的薄凝胶复合膜。所提出的复合膜将通过界面聚合到薄多孔支撑上形成。使用这种薄凝胶复合膜可以实现大规模的生物分离。所得膜的产率、选择性和有效厚度与聚合条件有关。具有代表性的生物分子大小的水溶性聚合物将被染料分子标记并用作渗透溶质。膜通量和选择性将通过流动扩散池来确定，该扩散池使用光纤探针比色计来即时测量下游浓度。该项目将促进凝胶基膜分离领域的进一步研究。基于薄凝胶复合膜的工艺可能取代纯化蛋白质和其他生物分子的附加步骤。

The goal of the research is to develop thin gel composite membranes for application in gel chromatography for bioseparations. The proposed composite membranes will be formed by interfacially polymerizing onto thin porous supports. Use of such thin gel composite membranes could result in large-scale bioseparations. The productivity, selectivity, and effective thickness of the resulting membranes will be related to the polymerization conditions. Water- soluble polymers that are representative of biomolecular size will be tagged with dye molecules and used as the permeating solutes. Membrane flux and selectivity will be determined with a flow-through diffusion cell which uses a fiber optic probe colorimeter to instantaneously measure the downstream concentration. This project will stimulate further research in the area of gel-based membrane separations. Processes based on the thin-gel composite membrane potentially may replace additional steps in the purification of proteins and other biological molecules.