Biotechnological applications, reversed-phase

In the past decade, we have benefited from major improvements in the sensitivity and efficiency of both chromatography and electrophoresis. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has become firmly ensconced as a powerful method for protein analysis. Ironically, reversed-phase chromatography, which employs denaturing conditions, has found a particularly wide application, at least when only analytical information is sought. This is the case in most routine analytical work required for many biotechnological applications. 

The rapid development of biotechnology during the 1980s provided new opportunities for the application of reaction engineering principles. In biochemical systems, reactions are catalyzed by enzymes. These biocatalysts may be dispersed in an aqueous phase or in a reverse micelle, supported on a polymeric carrier, or contained within whole cells. The reactors used are most often stirred tanks, bubble columns, or hollow fibers. If the kinetics for the enzymatic process is known, then the effects of reaction conditions and mass transfer phenomena can be analyzed quite successfully using classical reactor models. Where living cells are present, the growth of the cell mass as well as the kinetics of the desired reaction must be modeled [16, 17]. 

Block copolymers that have a thermosensitive smart part that consists of poly(NIPAAM) form reversible gels on an increase in temperature, whereas random copolymers separate from aqueous solutions by forming a concentrated polymer phase (25). Thus, the properties of polymers that are important for biotechnological and medical applications could be controlled by the composition of comonomers and also by the polymer architecture. 

The properties of smart polymers, which are important for biotechnological and medical applications, often can be controlled not only by the comonomer composition, but also by the polymer architecture. For example, block copolymers with a thermosensitive smart part consisting of poly(NIPAAM) do not separate from aqueous solutions in the same manner as random copolymers do. In particular, a reversible gel rather than a concentrated polymer phase is formed in response to an increase in temperature. Osmb-lilm copolymers with poly(NIPAAM)-grafts show a faster and more pronounced response to changes in temperature as compared to random copolymers. ... 

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