Temperature-triggered purification of antibodies.

In this article the unique capability of elastin-like protein (ELP) to reversibly precipitate was combined with the high affinity and specificity of antibody-binding domains such as Protein G, Protein L, or Protein LG as a general method for antibody purification that combines in a unique manner the simplicity and robustness of temperature-triggered precipitation with the selectivity of affinity interactions. In a single precipitation step, antibodies derived from different sources (animal sera or hybridoma cell cultures) were selectively recovered by a simple temperature trigger. Due to the versatility of the binding ligands toward different classes of antibodies, we believe that this technology will be useful as an economical, highly efficient, and universal platform for the purification of antibodies.