Affinity techniques foundations

The foundations for immobilized metal affinity chromatography (IMAC) were first laid in 1961 when Helferich introduced ligand-exchange chromatography [1], The modern-day usage of this technique and its practical applications as a purification tool did not emerge, however, until 1975 and the seminal work by Porath et al. [2],... 

Vouros and Dunayevskiy and others have utilized free solution or affinity CE methods combined (interfaced) with MS detection for searching libraries, as described below (18). However, CE or affinity CE is nothing but a separation technique, and it cannot and never will identify structures, especially when one is unsure of the contents of a given library. CE is a solution-based approach, though capillary gel electrophoresis (CGE) does use a polymeric gel in the capillary, which separates on the basis of differences in mass-to-charge or charge-to-mass ratios. This almost sounds like the basis of separations in MS. The reader must be referred to the available texts or review articles that describe how CE works, instrumental requirements, and the foundations or fundamentals of its separating abilities (36). 

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