Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for the non-magnetic purification of cellular components from a crude cell lysate by continuous liquid chromatography, which method comprises lysis of cells in a vessel to provide a crude cell lysate; passing the crude cell lysate so obtained, without any intermediate clarification, over a chromatogra-phy column packed with a porous particulate chromatography matrix to adsorb target component(s), wherein the particle surfaces present immobilised nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA) ligands charged with metal ions; and recovering the target component(s) by elu-tion.