Intracellular antibody Fab' fragments periplasmically expressed in Escherichia coli require the release of Fab' from the cells before initial product recovery. This work demonstrates the utility of microscale bioprocessing techniques to evaluate the influence of different cell disruption operations on subsequent solid liquid separation and product recovery. Initially, the industrial method of Fab' release by thermochemical extraction was established experimentally at the micro well scale and was observed to yield Fab' release consistent with the larger scale process. The influence of two further cell disruption operations, homogenization and sonication, on subsequent Fab' recovery by microfiltration was also examined. The results showed that the heat-extracted cells give better dead-end microfiltration performance in terms of permeate flux and specific cake resistance. In contrast, the cell suspensions prepared by homogenization and sonication showed more efficient product release but with lower product purity and poorer microfiltration performance. Having established the various microscale methods the linked sequence was automated on the deck of a laboratory robotic platform and used to show how different conditions during thermochemical extraction impacted on the optimal performance of the linked unit operations. The results illustrate the power of microscale techniques to evaluate crucial unit operation interactions in a bioprocess sequence using only microliter volumes of feed. (C) 2010 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 26: 1312-1321, 2010