Immobilized metal-ion affinity (IMA) adsorption is a collective term that is used to include all kinds of adsorptions where the metal ion serves as the characteristic and most essential part of adsorption center. Of all the IMA techniques, immobilized metal-affinity chromato graphy (IMAC) has been gaining popularity as the choice of purification technique for proteins. IMAC represents a separation technique that is primarily useful for proteins with natural surface exposed-histidine residues and for recombinant proteins with engineered histidine tag. This review also gives insight into other nonchromatographic applications of IMA adsorption such as immobilized metal-ion affinity gel electrophoresis (IMAGE), immobilized metal-ion affinity capillary electrophoresis (IMACE), and immobilized metal-ion affinity partitioning (IMAP).Keywords: immobilized metal-affinity chromato graphy; immobilized metal-ion affinity capillary electrophoresis; immobilized metal-ion affinity gel electrophoresis; immobilized metal-ion affinity partitioning; metal affinity; proteins.IMA adsorption is a collective term that is used to include all kinds of adsorptions where a metal ion, with affinity for analytes in the sample to be fractionated, is fixed to an insoluble matrix. The metal ion is immobilized to a solid support matrix via coordinate bonding with chelating agent. The metal ion serves as the characteristic and most essential part of the adsorption center [4]. Protein adsorption is based on coordinate bond formation between the immobilized metal ion and the electron donor group from the protein surface.Most commonly used are the transition-metal ions Cu(II), Ni(II), Zn(II), Co(II), Fe(III), which are electron-pair acceptors and can be considered as Lewis acids. Electron-donor atoms (N, S, O) present in the chelating compounds that are immobilized to the chromatographic support are capable of coordinating metal ions and forming metal chelates, which can be bidentate, tridentate, etc., depending on the number of occupied coordination bonds. The remaining metal coordination sites are normally occupied by water molecules and can be exchanged with suitable electron-donor groups from the protein.In addition to the amino terminus, side chains of certain amino acids bind to the chelated metal, due to their electron-donor atoms. Although many residues, such as Glu, Asp (-ve interaction) Tyr, Cys, His, Arg, Lys, and Met (+ve interaction), can interact with the protein, retention in IMAC is based primarily on the availability of histidyl residues under certain pH and ionic conditions. Free cysteines that could also contribute to binding to chelated metal ions are rarely available in the appropriate, reduced state. However, aromatic side chains of Trp, Phe, and Tyr appear to contribute to retention, if they are in the vicinity of accessible histidine residues [8]. Furthermore, the systematic investigation by E. Sulkowski using model homologous series of proteins showed that histidine, a member of Porath's triad (histidine, tryptophan, and cys...