The Impact of Nucleic Acid Contamination in Protein Purification Workflows and Bioprocessing

When nucleic acid contamination in protein purification isn’t controlled, you face sticky lysates, slower chromatography, and reduced protein yield. Residual DNA also risks regulatory non-compliance. Learn how using endonucleases effectively can streamline processes, reduce unit economics, and make nuclease treatment a practical solution from early development to large-scale manufacturing.

From uncovering how proteins work at the bench to developing therapeutic biologics or scaling up enzyme production for industrial fermentation, protein purification underpins the science and the applications that follow.

But regardless of the scale, common issues prevail:

1. Cell lysis, mechanical, chemical, or enzymatic, releases chromosomal DNA into solution

2. High molecular weight DNA tangles into long chains that transform lysates into sticky, viscous mixtures [1, 2]

3. The denser the culture, the greater the viscosity

4. The greater the viscosity, the more it blocks filters, slows centrifugation, and impairs chromatography [3]

In both academic and industrial labs, these issues translate into clogged spin filters, smeared pellets, wasted reagents, and non-reproducible experiments. In industrial processes, they can mean blocked filters, fouled chromatography columns, and entire batches of valuable product lost.

Read about the solutions in the full article here: https://bitesizebio.com/86307/nucleic-acid-contamination-protein-purification/