Ionic liquids in the assay of proteins

As a group of novel green solvents, ionic liquids have attracted extensive attention and gained popularity in various applications including protein assays. Ionic liquids are not only an excellent reaction medium to replace the conventional organic solvents, but are also an efficient participant to achieve better performances. The aim of the present mini-review is to illustrate the state-of-the-art progress of implementing ionic liquids in protein assays, focusing on the investigations of protein stability/activity, protein extraction and isolation/purification, protein crystallization, separation of protein species and their detections.