Field Flow Fractionation (FFF) has been demonstrated as a high speed analytical tool for separation and characterization of macromolecules, biopolymers, and cell particles in the size range of 0.01 to 50 microns. Filtration is a widely accepted technique for simple purification and is commonly practiced in many analytical and biological research laboratories. Coupling these two bio-compatible techniques in a two dimensional multi-channel design will significantly increase the power, selectivity, separation speed, throughput, and analytical information related to the analytes. Extension and commercialization of this technology for preparative scale application offers a new bio-compatible, rapid separation, characterization, and purification system for meeting the needs in bio-polymer, cell, and subcellular research. Two dimensional multi-channel design involves the use of membranes with decreasing pore size in a stacked assembly. Purified fractions would be collected at the outlet of each channel. This project focuses on membrane and multi-channel detector technology, and the feasibility of commercialization of this multi-channel universal biopolymer purification system.
