The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
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]