abstract
- © 2017, Springer International Publishing AG.The selection and implementation of a successful aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) strategy requires an extensive amount of research to optimize the different system design parameters to obtain the desired product yields and purity. This procedure might become even more difficult depending on the complexity of the sample being processed. However, because of their characteristics, ATPS represent an interesting strategy for the recovery of different proteic products from a wide array of available sources. The aim of this chapter is to highlight the different alternatives ¿ from a practical point of view ¿ in the selection of different ATPS to serve as a guide for the correct design and use of these operations for the recovery of protein molecules. In this context, our group has been working with these strategies for more than two decades. Our experience ranges from the ATPS extraction of proteins from simple sources to the extraction of these molecules from complex industrial wastes. In this chapter, we present a general and successful strategy that has served us as a first approach in implementing ATPS operations; we also present several of our most recent attempts in using ATPS in an intensive manner for the extraction of high added-value proteins from waste streams, chemical reactions, and the refolding of denatured proteins.