Automated storage and documentation system for protein crystallography ("crystal hotel")

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The determination of protein structures is an important method in biomedical research to understand the function of proteins under physiological and pathological conditions. Protein crystallography is an established method to achieve this, but requires the production of protein crystals. Growing protein crystals is the major challenge in structure determination. It requires testing a large number of different conditions and multiple rounds of optimization to obtain suitable crystals. Modern equipment can help solve this problem by automating (part of) the process. The automated storage and documentation system for protein crystallization described in this application represents such a solution. In addition, the advanced imaging capabilities of the system will allow detecting protein crystals that previously would have remained unrecognized. Therefore, this instrument is an essential basis for successfully conducting protein crystallography projects.