Cell fractionation is a lab technique which uses a centrifuge to separate the contents of a cell into fractions, after the cell has been turned into a cell-free extract (the contents of the cell after the cell wall and/or outer cell membranes have been removed).

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Some or all of the information in this writeup was taken from the science dictionary at http://biotech.icmb.utexas.edu/; I oversaw the development of the dictionary (the website was mothballed in 1998) and believe I wrote the entry this writeup is partly or wholly based upon.