Compact Benchtop System Enables Preparative Protein Purification in any Laboratory

A compact preparative chromatography instrument that is compatible with prepacked or user prepared columns and can be combined with fraction collectors to generate a complete protein purification system in any biotech or life sciences laboratory is now on the market.

The GE Healthcare (Chalfont St. Giles, United Kingdom) ÄKTA start is designed as a stand-alone system that combines a front-facing flow path with a user-friendly interface. The system is controlled via an intuitive touchscreen, which displays the UV curve and other run data in real-time.

ÄKTA start is compatible with all common purification techniques, including affinity and ion exchange chromatography, desalting, buffer exchange, and gel filtration. The system supports purification of tagged proteins, antibodies, untagged or native proteins, and sample clean-up applications. ÄKTA start can be operated using predefined quick-start protocols, built-in templates, or by creating custom protocols. Prepacked columns are available for common applications.

The ÄKTA start instrument can be augmented with GE Healthcare's Frac30 fraction collector for automatic protein collection, and with user-friendly UNICORN start 1.0 control software, which provides additional evaluation tools and the ability to control ÄKTA start from a computer.

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