Instrumentation
The Macromolecular Crystallography Facility has the materials necessary to find out if there is a chemical condition that will produce diffraction-quality crystals for your protein sample. From initial crystal hits, we can optimize and grow crystals to more practical sizes. We also have the equipment necessary for the collection of diffraction pattern data from single crystals of proteins and protein complexes.
Crystallization Screens
All of our current crystallization screens are made by Qiagen, and these include:
Automatic Protein Crystallization Robot
Our facility uses a Douglas Instruments Oryx 6 robot to set up 96-well crystallization plates. This robot is designed to quickly and accurately dispense vapor diffusion drops from pre-dispensed reservoirs into sitting drop wells of all high quality vapor diffusion trays, including multi-drop plates. Protein is added at the same time using their unique multi-bore dispensing technique.
We now have the new sliding evaporation shield for this instrument, which provides protection from evaporation and dust, for the nanodrops and multiple drops in vapor diffusion screening experiments. Microbatch experiments are automatically covered with oil within seconds of being dispensed.
Microscopes
To follow the progress of our crystal trays, we have 3 Leika stereomicroscopes:
One of the room temperature microscopes is equipped with a polarizer and camera.
Generator
We have a Rigaku-MSC RU-200 Generator, complete with mirrors, a mar345 image plate detector, crystal cooling X-stream system, a microscope and a computer to control the detector and store data.
Once you have completed the safety training and are a registered user, you may book time on the X-ray equipment.
Also from this web page:
Protein Crystallization
What is Crystallization?
To put it (not so) simply: "Crystallization is phase separation in a thermodynamically metastable supersaturated system under the control of kinetic parameters, with the favourable outcome being the formation of a crystal" --Rupp and Wang, Methods. 2004 Nov;34(3):390-407.
What is Crystal Screening?
Crystal screening is the term we use when referring to the process of finding the exact chemical conditions that will cause a protein to crystallize. In essence, setting up a crystal screen involves mixing a weakly buffered protein solution in a 1:1 ratio with a crystallization cocktail, in a closed system, and leaving it alone to approach equilibrium.
