Aqueous Two Phase Systems for the Recovery of Biomolecules – A Review

Aqueous two phase system (ATPS) is a liquid – liquid extraction method which employs two aqueous phases having applications in the field of biotechnology for the separation and purification of biological materials such as proteins, enzymes, nucleic acids, virus, antibodies and cell organelles. This review discusses the basic principles of ATPS, the factors affecting partitioning, optimization by design of experiments and the recent applications like extractive fermentation, membrane supported liquid – liquid extraction and aqueous two phase floatation. A comparative study between ATPS and other conventional methods is also discussed. The emphasis is given to PEG/salt two-phase systems because of the low cost of the system.