Category: Protein Purification Techniques Certification Course

This course is for graduates, postdoctoral scholars, staff scientists, and professors with specialized scientific expertise who are not quite familiar with techniques of protein isolation, purification, and characterization techniques. This course puts emphasis on basic principles, laboratory strategies, and current best practices in the field.

• Students in their B.Sc / B.Tech / M.Sc / M.Tech / Ph. D, who aspire to work on cutting-edge research technologies used in proteomics,.
• Aspiring scientists who look forward to working further in the field of protein analysis and characterization through advanced technologies.
• Science enthusiasts who like to stay updated about the recent research updates using the most talked-about processes in protein purification
• Any candidate who is looking for a career in the life science industry.

Individuals taking up the course are expected to be familiar with basic general and organic chemistry and biochemistry in particular organic molecular structures and functional groups and pH concepts. Be familiar with the importance of organic molecules in biochemistry including biological macromolecules and be familiar with simple inorganic molecules and salts as well as their properties. This course will be suitable for both beginners and for users with basic knowledge.

Purification is an intrinsic objective for the profound and exact portrayal of a target protein, an objective protein. As scientists assume that proteins are responsible for bad and good roles throughout everyday life, in this manner we ought to apply more endeavors to definitely comprehend proteins’ structure and characters. This objective cannot be achieved unless we acquire a highly purified protein, which unfortunately and usually, is present in crowed with different protein communities.

An integral and important component of the life science industry and research is the use of protein engineering techniques to design or modify proteins. Such techniques to purify and characterize proteins are necessary to optimize protein properties for specific industrial applications. Purified proteins are the most important requirement for many experimental applications, including structural studies and in vitro biochemical assays. The intensity to which this purification process is required to pursue depends upon the use to which the protein is to be put.  For example, food and pharmaceutical proteins need to be brought to a high grade of purity. They even have to pass through several sequential steps, as few as possible, since at each step some protein will inevitably be lost.

It is extremely important to obtain skills to apply advanced methods to purify and characterize proteins, which is the basic requirement for getting a job in most life science companies. Candidates are expected to possess skills in creating the experimental basis for the practicality of the purification of proteins. Hence gaining knowledge about the techniques of protein purification and characterization of their properties including enzyme activity are an integral part of preparing oneself for climbing the career ladder. On a scientific basis, individuals need to reflect on biochemical and molecular biological knowledge and to identify scientific problems. 

Moreover, some of the advanced courses based on proteomics, require the minimum understanding of protein purification strategies and principles. Knowledge of such techniques are required in interdisciplinary industries as well such as in Pharmaceuticals, Microbiology, Medical and Healthcare, Clinical research, etc.

Career opportunities in this field:

The protein purification industry holds a wide range of research opportunities, industrial jobs, and varied tracks for career advancement.

One can find lots of career options before becoming a Protein Purification Scientist, such as a Research Assistant, Research Associate, Research Fellow, Research Scientist, Research Internship, Internship, Associate Scientist, Research Associate R & D, Scientist, Doctoral Fellow,  Assay Development Scientist, Biology Laboratory Assistant, Research Specialist, Laboratory Technician, Graduate Research Assistant, Researcher, Field Inspector, Process Development Scientist, Teaching Assistant, Information Systems Specialist.

Additionally, one can also manufacture technician and equipment technician job options after taking up additional courses.

Some of the commonly found skills required for any Job opening related to protein purification are:

• Knowledge of protein expression, spectroscopy, protein purification.
• in-depth knowledge in protein chemistry and routine protein purification in order to be a part of the downstream process team.
• For Most of the Job openings at Thermo Fisher, Desired Skills are : molecular biology, SDS, protein characterization, scientist, bioinformatics tools, electrophoresis, protein biochemistry, protein analysis, western blotting
• Some of the industry job profile demands sound knowledge and exposure in Molecular Biology, Genetic Engineering, Protein Purification, and mammalian cell culture.
• Knowledge of isolation and purification of desired proteins from large volumes of human biological fluids. Candidates should have knowledge of protein purification techniques.
• Knowledge of chromatography systems at a small scale and large scale (IEX, Affinity, HIC, etc) is also sought.

Protein purification involves the isolation of proteins from the source such as microbes, yeast, plants, and mammalian cells, and separating them based on differences in their physical properties. The primary objective of a protein purification scheme is to retain the largest amount of the functional protein while having the fewest contaminants. Hence the purification scheme must be optimized to complete this process in the least number of steps.

Biochemists have devoted effort to find convenient methods for protein purification in case they are aiming to obtain a precise characterization and dive inside the target protein. Proteins as biomicromolecules differ in their chemical and physical properties. These physical properties require the understanding of special techniques for studying, such as mass spectroscopy, gel filtration, ion exchanger chromatography, electrophoresis, and chromatofocusing, while the chemical properties include the composition, covalent and non-covalent bonds, and solubility. These methods, thus depend heavily upon being able to isolate and purify the desired proteins in a way that their physical and chemical properties can be understood, along with their tertiary structures and conformational interactions with ligands and substrates.

Separation techniques for proteins and their basis

Protein purification techniques are an important part to customize or produce proteins having specific properties in a way that they can be applied in various industrial processes. Industry standards of protein purification demand a high level of purity. Several techniques for protein purification are used to reach that required level.

Needless to say, they are extremely crucial to biotechnological and in fact in any life science research.

This course will cover important techniques such as electrophoresis, chromatography, etc that are commonly used in protein purification and discusses the advantages, disadvantages, and potential problems of each. Various protein estimation techniques are also covered along with these.