Salting out

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Salting out (also known as salt-induced precipitation, salt fractionation, anti-solvent crystallization, precipitation crystallization, or drowning out)^[1] is a purification technique that utilizes the reduced solubility of certain molecules in a solution of very high ionic strength. Salting out is typically used to precipitate large biomolecules, such as proteins or DNA.^[2] Because the salt concentration needed for a given protein to precipitate out of the solution differs from protein to protein, a specific salt concentration can be used to precipitate a target protein. This process is also used to concentrate dilute solutions of proteins. Dialysis can be used to remove the salt if needed.