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GE Healthcare Life Sciences Part of GE Healthcare
Education Centre
About the purification of biomolecules
Purpose of purification
Developing purification protocols
How to combine purification steps
Purification development - summary
LC techniques
Affinity Chromatography
Desalting & Gel Filtration
Hydrophobic interaction chromatography
Ion exchange chromatography
Reversed phase chromatography
Animation
Basic principles
RPC in practice
Technique Profile
What is RPC?
Protein Purifier software
BioProcess™ Glossary

Reversed phase chromatography in practice

Use of Reversed phase chromatography
High resolution mode
(gradient elution)
Group separation mode
(step elution)
Separates peptides, proteins and oligonucleotides according to net hydrophobicity. Concentrates dilute oligonucleotide and peptide samples.
Suitable for intermediate steps and polishing in multi-step purification protocols.Suitable for so called solid phase extraction.
Main technique for the purification of synthetic peptides.Suitable for desalting of peptide and oligonucleotide samples.
Main technique for the analysis of peptides and for peptide mapping.
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Experimental
High resolution mode
(gradient elution)
Group separation mode
(step elution)
Reversed phase chromatography medium
Use 10 - 30 mm media for purification work.
Use 5 - 12 mm media for analytical work.
Use polymer-based media for protein separations (allows cleaning under alkaline conditions).
Use media with 30 mm beads or larger to allow higher flow rates.
Column
Typical column lenghts are 1 - 10 cm.Column length is less important. Short and "fat" columns, however, will allow higher flow rates.
Eluents
Oligonucleotides are separated under alkaline conditions
Standard conditions for peptides are
ACN; TFA at pH ~ 2.
Eluent optimisation is not necessary for desalting and concentrating the sample.
Sample salts will elute during sample application.
Sample volume
Sample volume restricted to 0.5 - 5% of column volume in isocratic mode.
No sample volume restriction in gradient mode.
The sample volume is not important since the sample will bind to the column.
Sample amount
5 - 10 % of the total loading capacity of the column used can be applied without loss of resolution.Around 40 % of the total loading capacity of the column used can be applied.
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Buffer preparation tips
  • Adjust pH of buffer B before adding the organic solvent.
  • Adjust buffer pH at the temperature intended for the experiment.
  • Always test that target protein/ peptide is soluble and stable in buffer A and B.
  • Use HPLC grade chemicals for analytical experiments.
Sample preparation tips
  • Filter or spin the sample to remove any particulate matter.
  • Especially with large sample volumes, adjust sample pH and salt content to match those of "buffer A".
  • Buffer exchange on Sephadex G-25 is a rapid and mild way to adjust sample conditions.
  • Especially with large sample volumes, adjust sample temperature to match that of "buffer A".
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Arriving at optimal results
(Measures in order of priority)
  1. Screen for best RPC medium.
  2. Scout for optimum mobile phase composition. Pay special attention to pH and ion pair agent.
  3. Select the steepest gradient slope that provides acceptable results.
  4. Select the highest flow rate that provides acceptable results.