At NEB, Dr. Xu and colleagues have made a useful protein purification system using the modified yeast intein. They developed an inducible vector that allows fusion of your gene in frame with the Cys of the intein N-terminal. Chitin is one of the most abundant biomaterials on earth and it is tough. It is second only to cellulose and its structure is nearly the same. The C2 OH group of cellulose is replaced by an acetamido group in chitin.
Chitin is found in cell walls of fungi, algae and in the exoskeletons of arthropods.
An affinity column made with chitin would be very durable and it could be reused many times. C. This is slow and takes overnight, so it could be a problem if your protein is not stable under these conditions. Detergents and salt do not affect the cleavage reaction, so these can be present in the buffer. The final product is native except for the DTT thioester moiety attached at the end. This can be removed by adding Cys that will compete for the thioester linkage.