Tracing FFF's Path From the 1960s to Today

Field-flow fractionation (FFF) has come a long way since its origins in the late 1960s. Once reliant on hand-built channels and lab-customized components, the technique has matured into a commercially available, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-compatible analytical platform, and its community of practitioners is growing with it. In this panel discussion, four leading FFF experts share their perspectives on where the technique stands today and where it is headed.

In this interview segment, the experts discuss:

• Looking back to its origins in the late 1960s and early 1970s, how do you think FFF has evolved in terms of instrumentation, applications, and theoretical understanding? Which of those advances do you see as having had the biggest impact on its uptake in academia and industry?

Lars Nilsson (Lund University) has witnessed the shift from home-built equipment to robust commercial instruments first-hand and reflects on how coupling FFF with multi-angle light scattering transformed what was possible. Valentina Marassi (University of Bologna) champions FFF’s potential as a decision-making tool, particularly as it integrates with increasingly sophisticated detection systems. Claudia Zielke (Vaxcyte) brings an industry perspective, highlighting the urgent need for trained users and standardized methods as biopharma adoption accelerates. And Susanne Boye (Department of Advanced Macromolecular Structure Analysis, IPF) underscores the opportunities—and challenges—of coupling FFF with emerging detection technologies for environmental and nanoplastics analysis.

Together, they cover the key questions shaping FFF’s trajectory: the role of AI and automation in broadening accessibility, the barriers still standing between FFF and routine industrial use, the promise of advanced detector coupling for real-world decision-making, and the realistic outlook for a technique that, as Marassi puts it, is heading toward becoming “the Michelin star of analytical techniques”—not mainstream, but deeply respected and indispensable for complex characterization challenges. Whether you are an FFF specialist or are considering the technique for the first time, this discussion offers a frank and forward-looking assessment of where analytical science is taking field-flow fractionation.

Further reading

Zielke, C.; Astefani, A.; Marassi, V.; Sánchez-Cachero, A.; Boye, S. A Future Perspective from the Young Scientists of FFF: Field-Flow Fractionation as an Essential Tool in Emerging Scientific Infrastructure. The Column 2026, 22 (1), 24–27. https://www.chromatographyonline.com/view/a-future-perspective-from-the-young-scientists-of-fff-field-flow-fractionation-as-an-essential-tool-in-emerging-scientific-infrastructure