Membrane Chromatography
Sartobind®: Trusted for More Than Two Decades in Commercial Processing
Sartorius membrane chromatography solutions transform purification into highly productive processes, from drug discovery to commercial production:
- Our scalable chromatography portfolio can be tailored to meet diverse process needs, enabling high utilization of chromatographic material, especially in applications where resin materials tend to be underutilized, such as clinical batches or single-use applications.
- Convective membrane pores support high flow rates, with recommended residence times of 12–20 seconds for capture applications and up to 3 seconds for flow-through applications.
- Ready-to-use formats eliminate the need for column packing hardware and costly cleaning validation.
Membrane Chromatography Portfolio
Various Chemistries for Diverse Purification Needs
The Sartobind® range includes a variety of chromatographic membranes, including affinity membranes, ion exchange membranes, and hydrophobic interaction membranes. Sartobind® membranes are suitable for a broad range of applications—from viral vector and mAb purification to capture or polishing steps—supporting both bind-elute and flow-through modes.
| Sartobind® Rapid A | Sartobind Convec® SC | |
|---|---|---|
| Chemistry | Protein A affinity | Heparin-like pseudo-affinity/CEX |
| Base Membrane | Agarose | Cellulose |
| Focus Applications | mAb capture | Capture of virus and virus-like particles (e.g., influenza, rabies) |
| View Products | View Products |
| Sartobind Convec® D | Sartobind® Q | Sartobind STIC® PA | Sartobind® S | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chemistry | Weak anion exchange (AEX) | Strong AEX | Salt-tolerant AEX | Strong cation exchange (CEX) |
| Base Membrane | Cellulose | Cellulose | Cellulose | Cellulose |
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| View Products | View Products | View Products | View Products |
| Sartobind® Phenyl | |
|---|---|
| Chemistry | Hydrophobic interaction |
| Base Membrane | Cellulose |
| Focus Applications |
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| View Products |
Select Your Product
Supporting Products & Services
Related Assets
Sartobind® Rapid A as an Efficient, Cost-Effective Alternative to Traditional Protein a Resin Chromatography for Smaller-Scale mAb Production
PDF | 545.4 KB
Sartobind® Rapid A: Comparable Product Quality to Protein A Resins With Higher Productivity
PDF | 3.0 MB
Host Cell Protein Removal - A Comparison Between Sartobind STIC® PA and Sartobind® Q
PDF | 275.4 KB
Phenyl Membrane Adsorber for Bioprocessing - Sartobind® Hydrophobic Interaction Membrane Chromatography
PDF | 2.1 MB
Endotoxin Removal - Ion Exchange Chromatography With Sartobind® Membrane Adsorbers
PDF | 351.5 KB
Optimizing Adenovirus Purification Processes - Using Sartobind® Q and STIC PA Anion Exchange Membranes
PDF | 643.8 KB
Virus Purification and Removal — Ion Exchange Chromatography with Sartobind® Membrane Adsorbers
PDF | 509.9 KB
Robust and Scalable Membrane Chromatography for Adeno-Associated Virus Capture Using Sartobind S
PDF | 820.6 KB
Types of Chromatography Membranes at Sartorius
Agarose-based Membranes: Sartobind® Rapid
Agarose-based chromatography membranes such as Sartobind® Rapid A combine the benefits of convective and diffusive mass transfer mechanisms. This provides a competitive and efficient solution for small biomolecule | mAb purification, offering high binding capacity and short residence times. Large convective pores (~5 µm wide) enable high operating flow rates without significantly increasing back pressure. Small diffusive pores (~0.1 µm wide) with a diffusive path length of ~3 µm provide extensive access to binding sites, increasing binding capacity for the target molecule even at short residence times.
Cellulose-Based Membranes: Sartobind®
Convective mass transport dominates in cellulose-based membranes, allowing molecules to quickly reach ligand sites. This is particularly advantageous for separating large biomolecules (e.g., lentivirus, adenovirus, influenza virus) in bind-elute mode—molecules that would otherwise diffuse too slowly or be excluded from the small pores of classical chromatography resins. These membranes also provide a high-productivity solution for purification in flow-through mode.
The convective pores range from ~1 µm to ~5 µm in width, depending on the product. Different modification strategies and ligands enable precise tailoring of each chromatography membrane type to the final purification goal.
Frequently Asked Questions
In membrane chromatography the stationary phase consists out of a porous membrane with functionalized ligands attached. The pore size of the membrane can be fitted to match the properties of the target molecules to allow efficient separation. In many applications (e.g. purification of large biomolecules, flow-through polishing or rapid cycling chromatography) membrane chromatography can replace resin chromatography to increase the productivity and the efficiency of the purification process.
Sartobind® and Sartobind Convec® are both based on a cellulose membrane, while the Sartobind® Rapid membrane is made from Agarose. The Sartobind® Rapid membrane offers a unique pore structure combining convective and diffusive mass transfer in one membrane which enables high binding capacities at low residence times for smaller biomolecules like mAbs. Sartobind® and Sartobind Convec® membranes utilize convective mass transfer allowing even increased flow rates making them a great tool e.g. for flow through polishing or purification of larger biomolecules in bind and elute mode. In Sartobind Convec® membranes, the ligand is directly attached to the cellulose matrix, while in Sartobind® membranes different methodologies (e.g. ligand attached to a hydrogel) are used to further enlarge the surface area.
Sartorius chromatography membranes are GMP compliant and are delivered with a certificate of analysis. Some of the membranes are primarily designed for single-use, others allow reuse if desired and validated internally. The closed capsule formats simplify validation and reduce contamination risk if operated as single use. For further information on reusability please refer to the individual products.
The Sartorius chromatography membranes are linearly scalable from the Nano capsule format up to the cassette format. They allow for consistent performance from PD to commercial manufacturing. For Sartobind® Q and Sartobind® S, which are available in both 4mm and 8mm bed height for all sizes, one bed height needs to be maintained to scale linearly.
