Dereplication

1 definition found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Dereplication \De`rep*li*ca"tion\, n. (Biochem.)
     the process of testing samples of mixtures which are active
     in a screening process, so as to recognize and eliminate from
     consideration those active substances already studied; -- a
     stage subsequent to the preliminary screening in the process
     of discovery of new pharmacologically active substances in


     mixtures of natural products; -- also called
     {counterscreening}. See {screening}.
  
     Note: In the process of pharmaceutical screening (testing a
           large number of substances to find those having
           desirable pharmacological activity), the testing of
           samples of substances extracted from living organisms
           (plants, microorganisms, etc.) often detects substances
           already detected in prior screening. Such "known" or
           "replicate" activities must be recognized at an early
           stage to avoid duplicating previous efforts at
           purification and structural identification. The process
           of testing an sample which is active in a primary
           screen, to determine if the activity is due to a
           previously known substance, is called dereplication or
           counterscreening.
           [PJC]