Disclosed are purification systems and methods for providing purified preparations of antibodies from a fluid, particularly a biological fluid comprising or suspected to contain antibody (e.g., blood, serum, plasma, ascites fluid). Reusable and stable synthetic purification columns comprising membranes of a suitable separation matrix material, such as a nylon membrane or regenerated cellulose membrane, having conjugated thereto a small molecule capture ligand, such as a short peptide or protein capable of acting as a ligand for a particular antibody of interest, such as a peptide having a sequence with binding affinity for a nucleotide binding site (NBS) of a selected antibody of interest, are also provided. Methods of preparing the purification columns are also disclosed. Methods for preparing high yield and high purity therapeutic antibody preparations, such as anti-cancer therapeutics, from a biological fluid, are also presented.
