The provision of an antibody or antibody fragment for use as an immunological reagent necessitates—at the very least—partial, but preferably total, purification of that antibody or antibody fragment from its source fluid. Numerous methods exist for this process, all designed to separate contaminating proteins from the antibody of interest. The majority of these methods utilize column chromatography of one form or another (as expanded upon here) and therefore require some form of preliminary step in order to eliminate particulate matter (such as cell debris) from the feed-stock. This is often achieved by centrifugation, ultrafiltration, or ammonium sulfate precipitation.
