Nucleation and Growth Kinetics in Protein Crystallization

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Achievements of this year are as follows ;1. The Japanese group (J-group) measured solubilities of tetragonal, orthorhombic and triclinic form of hen egg white lysozyme (HEW lysozyme) using two beam interferometry.2. J-group developed an interferometic method to measure the refractive index inside crystals (HEW lysozyme).3. J-group got highly purified HEW lysozyme samples using HPLC.With this sample, they observed crystal interfaces using atomic force microscopy. This result was discussed with the American group (A-group) comparing with A-group's result.4. J-group tried to perform crystallization of HEW lysozyme in a high magnetic field. And they found that it could control the nucleation rate and orientation of crystals.5. Appoferritin (A-group) and ferritin (J-group) were highly purified and then crystallized. They showed again that removement of impurities is indispensable for growth of crystals of high quality. J-group made a morphodrom of ferritin.6. A-group performed light scatte … More ring experiments of HEW lysozyme solution and discuss the aggregation process. They estimated the second virial coefficient of the solution and discussed relation between ion intensity and intermolecular interaction.7. A-group precisely measured topography of vicinal surface with use of the laser interferometry and obtained time evolution of normal and step growth rates and slope of the vicinal surfaces.8. A-group found that there existed a region where HEW lysozyme solution separated into two liquid phases. They made a phase diagram for this segregation with use of the light scattering technique.9. In order to estimate the solution layr thickness where convection is ignored, A-grup performed computer simulation of the concentration profiles around a growing crystal changing thickness of the solution layr. J-group measured concentration profiles around a growing lysozyme crystal changing the thickness of the cell. These results were compared each other.10. J-group measured solubility of HEW lysozyme in situ in high pressure. Pressure dependence of the growth rate was also studied. Less