Chromatography matrices including novel

1. An affinity chromatography ligand comprising two or more B domains or two or more C domains or two or more Z domains of Staphylococcus aureus Protein A (SPA), wherein each domain has a deletion of 3 or 4 consecutive amino acids from the N-terminus, starting at position 1 or position 2 corresponding to its wild type counterpart, wherein the ligand is immobilized onto a solid support and wherein the ligand exhibits reduced fragmentation following exposure of the ligand to 0.5 M NaOH for at least 5 hours, as evidenced by SDS-PAGE and/or SEC techniques, relative to its wildtype counterpart.

2. The affinity chromatography ligand of claim 1 , wherein the ligand is immobilized onto a solid support via multipoint attachment.

3. The affinity chromatography ligand of claim 1 , wherein the immobilized ligand retains at least 95% of its initial binding capacity for a target molecule after 5 hours, or after 10 hours, or after 15 hours, or after 20 hours, or after 25 hours, or after 30 hours of incubation in 0.5 M NaOH.

4. The affinity chromatography ligand of claim 1 , wherein the ligand further comprises replacement of a glycine amino acid residue at position 29 with a lysine amino acid residue in case of B domain and C domain, or replacement of an alanine residue at position 29 with a glycine residue, in case of Z domain.

5. The affinity chromatography ligand of claim 2 , wherein the solid support is selected from the group consisting of controlled pore glass, silica, zirconium oxide, titanium oxide, agarose, polymethacrylate, polyacrylate, polyacrylamide, polyvinylether, polyvinyl alcohol and polystyrene and derivatives thereof.

6. The affinity chromatography ligand of claim 1 , wherein the solid support is selected from a bead, a hollow fiber, a solid fiber, a pad, a gel, a membrane, a cassette, a column, a chip, a slide, a plate or a monolith.

7. The affinity chromatography ligand of claim 1 , wherein the solid support is a bead comprising polyvinylether.

8. A method of purifying a target molecule from a sample, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) providing a sample comprising an immunoglobulin;

(b) contacting the sample with a chromatography ligand of claim 1 under conditions such that the target molecule binds to the ligand;

(c) altering conditions such that the target molecule is no longer bound to the ligand,

thereby to purify the target molecule from the sample.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the target molecule is an immunoglobulin.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the immunoglobulin is a monoclonal antibody.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the altering step includes altering the pH, such the target molecule is no longer bound to the ligand.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein, the pH is altered in step (c) such that it is more acidic than the pH in step (a).

13. The method of claim 8 , further comprising one or more subsequent purification or polishing steps.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the one or more subsequent purification or polishing steps are selected from one or more of hydrophobic interaction chromatography, ion exchange chromatography and weak partition chromatography.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the one or more subsequent purification or polishing steps are carried out in a flow-through mode.