Main description:

This is a timely collection of important biomedical applications for a set of separation/characterization techniques that are rapidly gaining popularity due to their wide dynamic range, high resolution, and ability to function in most commonly used solvent systems. Importantly, the field-flow fractionation (FFF) technique has recently emerged as a prominent complement to size exclusion chromatography for protein pharmaceuticals. Fractionation with FFF is gentle and preserves protein structural integrity better than existing alternatives. In the present text, different chapters are written by experts in their respective field of application, who offer comparisons between the FFF techniques and other methods for characterizing their special focus material. Practical guide-lines for successful implementation, such as choice of operating conditions, are offered in conjunction with each application. In addition to new instrumentation and approaches that address important current topics, readers are provided with an overall sense of prior (but timeless) major developments that may be overlooked in literature searches.

Contents:

Introduction.- 1 Flow FFF - Basics and Key Applications.- 2 Assessing protein-ultrafiltration membrane interactions using flow field-flow fractionation.- 3 Hollow-fiber flow field-flow fractionation: a pipeline to scale down separation and enhance detection of proteins and cells.- 4 Two-Dimensional Separation for Proteomic Analysis.- 5 Field-Flow Fractionation in Therapeutic Protein Development.- 6 Assessing and Improving Asymmetric Flow Field Flow Fractionation of Therapeutic Proteins.- 7 Studies of loose protein aggregates by flow Field-Flow Fractionation (FFF) coupled to Multi-Angle Laser Light Scattering (MALLS).- 8 Field Flow Fractionation for Assessing Biomolecular Interactions in Solution.- 9 Flow Field Flow Fractionation: Analysis of Biomolecules and Their Complexes.- 10 Analysis of prions by field-flow fractionation.- 11 Multifunctionalized Particles for Biosensor Use.- 12 Starch and other polysaccharides.- 13 The use of field-flow fractionation for the analysis of drug and gene delivery systems.- 14 Characterization of liposomes by FFF.- 15 Mammalian Cell Sorting with Sedimentation Field Flow Fractionation.- 16 Isolation and characterization of cells by Dielectrophoretic Field-Flow Fractionation.- 17 Field flow fractionation coupled to inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (FFF-ICP-MS): Methodology and application to environmental nanoparticle research.