Immobilized metal affinity chromatography in open-loop simulated moving bed technology: Purification of a heat stable histidine tagged β-glucosidase

Open-loop simulated moving bed (SMB) has been used for immobilized metal affinity chromatographic (IMAC) purification of his-tagged β-glucosidase expressed in E. coli. A simplified approach based on an optimized single column protocol is used to design the open-loop SMB. A set of columns in the SMB represent one step in the chromatographic cycle i.e. there will be one set each of columns for load, wash, elution etc within the SMB. Only the wash and elution are operated with columns in sequence. The β-glucosidase was purified to almost single band purity with a purification factor of 15 and a recovery of 91%. SMB-performance showed reduced buffer consumption, higher purification fold, a better yield and higher productivity.