By manipulating solvent concentrations, pH, salt levels, and temperature, Cohn was able to pull out successive "fractions" of blood plasma.

[15] The BSA blocker improves sensitivity by decreasing background noise as the sites are covered with the moderately non-reactive protein.

BSA is used because of its ability to increase signal in assays, its lack of effect in many biochemical reactions, and its low cost, since large quantities of it can be readily purified from bovine blood, a byproduct of the cattle industry.

Another use for BSA is that it can be used to temporarily isolate substances that are blocking the activity of the enzyme that is needed, thus impeding polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

[19] BSA has been widely used as a template to synthesize nanostructures [20] and determining the toxic or beneficial effects of metal ions and their complexes.