Recently, Associate Professor Xin Yuanrong's team published a paper entitled ‘Construction of a highly efficient adsorbent for one-step purification of recombinant proteins: Functionalised cellulose-based monolith fabricated via phase separation method’ in Carbohydrate Polymers, a journal of Chinese Academy of Sciences. The paper entitled ‘Construction of a highly efficient adsorbent for one-step purification of recombinant proteins: Functionalized cellulose-based monolith fabricated via phase separation method’ was published by the team of Prof. Huang Lanlan, M.S. student of Pharmaceutical Engineering, class of 2021, who is the first author of the paper.

In this study, a cellulose MONOLITH monolithic column porous material was prepared from natural polysaccharide cellulose as a starting material using a novel thermally-initiated phase separation technique, and after a series of surface modification and functionalization, it was used as a highly efficient affinity adsorbent for the isolation and purification of recombinant proteins. The material has a unique multilevel internal pore structure, high specific surface area, porosity and mechanical strength. In addition, the starting material cellulose has high hydrophilicity, excellent chemical and pH stability, and extensive surface modifiability. The thus obtained functionalized cellulose-based MONOLITH materials are considered to be an ideal versatile platform technology for the preparation of high-purity recombinant protein macromolecules.