What is "immunoprecipitation"

n. (context immunology English) A technique in which an antigen is precipitated from solution by using an antibody, or a particular use of this technique

Immunoprecipitation (IP) is the technique of precipitating a protein antigen out of solution using an antibody that specifically binds to that particular protein. This process can be used to isolate and concentrate a particular protein from a sample containing many thousands of different proteins. Immunoprecipitation requires that the antibody be coupled to a solid substrate at some point in the procedure.