For the single step isolation and purification of biologically active or functional molecules, affinity chromatography offers distinct advantages over other separation techniques. The interaction between certain biological messengers, in the course of chemical communication during normal cellular life, is extremely specific and this specificity has been applied with good effect in the isolation of hormones, receptors, enzymes and neurotransrnitters, to name but a few. In general the technique entails activating a suitable porous hydrophilic resin (usually agarose) chemically by cyanogen bromide. The activated resin is subsequently coupled to a bifunctional spacer molecule which in turn, is reacted with the molecule or ligand to be immobilized.
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