Purification of bionanoparticles

The recent demand for nanoparticulate products such as viruses, plasmids, protein nanoparticles, and drug delivery systems have resulted in the requirement for predictable and controllable production processes. Protein nanoparticles are an attractive candidate for gene and molecular therapy due to their relatively easy production and manipulation. These particles combine the advantages of both viral and non-viral vectors while minimizing the disadvantages. However, their successful application depends on the availability of selective and scalable methodologies for product recovery and purification. Downstream processing of nanoparticles depends on the production process, producer system, culture media and on the structural nature of the assembled nanoparticle, i.e., mainly size, shape and architecture. In this paper, the most common processes currently used for the purification of nanoparticles, are reviewed.