Conceptual Design for an Automated High-Throughput Magnetic Protein Complex Purification Workcell

One of the major challenges facing the emerging field of proteomics research is related to the technical difficulties in analyzing protein structure and function on a genomic scale. The routine purification of protein complexes as a means to investigate protein–protein interaction networks is of particularly high interest because of its significant potential to improve overall understanding of protein function and to improve ongoing drug discovery efforts. Automation of currently practiced laboratory procedures has the potential to markedly improve protein purification throughput, but important technical issues remain to be addressed. This paper investigates key bottlenecks in the automation of standard affinity-based procedures for protein complex purification and introduces a promising conceptual design for an automated workcell that would allow for rapid and efficient magnetic bead-based purification of protein complexes from model organisms suitable for a medium-sized research laboratory setting. The design specifications are based on a modular and flexible design that will permit routine, unattended batch isolation and processing of protein complexes from microbes.