Affinity adsorbents comprising monodisperse spherical synthetic macroporous beads offer the prospect of high-capacity, high-resolution separation of proteins at low operating pressures. Purpose-designed biomimetic dyes were covalently attached to Dynospheres XP-3507 beads and exploited for the purification of calf intestine alkaline phosphate and human urine urokinase from crude extracts. This study demonstrates that the combination of specifically designed affinity ligands with monosized support materials is a powerful approach to the resolution of proteins by high-performance affinity chromatography. © 1991.