Acquisition of Automated Nanoscale Crystallization Equipment

购置自动化纳米结晶设备

• 批准号: 7594883
• 负责人: Thomas Schwartz
• 金额: $ 48.94万
• 依托单位: MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-05-01 至 2010-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7594883
• 关键词: Biochemistry; Biological; Biology; Chemistry; Complement; Core Facility; Crystallization; Crystallography; Equipment; Eukaryotic Cell; Faculty; Funding; Image; Internet; Liquid substance; Macromolecular Complexes; Manuals; Methods; Proteins; Proteomics; Reproducibility; Research; Research Personnel; Robot; Sampling; Schedule; Scientist; Screening procedure; Structural Biologist; Students; System; Time; expectation; improved; interest; nanoscale; public health relevance; research study; structural biology; technology development

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In this proposal, six faculty of the Departments of Biology and of Chemistry at MIT request funding for automated macromolecular crystallization equipment to be installed at MIT's Structural Biology Core Facility. MIT structural biologists have lacked, until this year, any of the automated, nanoscale crystallization equipment that is becoming common at macromolecular crystallography facilities. Crystallization screens and optimization have been performed by manually pipetting. Subsequent observation is manual as well. This experimental approach is laborious, repetitive, and wasteful - consuming large amounts of samples that are expensive to produce. Recent technology developments, driven by structural proteomics projects, have made available equipment that now largely supplants manual methods in screening and initial optimization. As a first step, this group of structural biologists recently purchased an automated liquid handling system for nanoscale crystallization screening. The results in the first two months have exceeded expectations: projects where sample material was limiting have become possible and have been initiated, improved reproducibility has enabled focused optimization strategies and initial hits have been found in record time. The requested funds will be used to expand and complement this liquid handling system, providing the equipment necessary to an up-to-date crystallization facility - namely, a pipetting robot to compose accurately customized grid screens, a combined imaging and storage system to follow crystallization trials, and a storage and web server with sufficient capacity to record and present to investigators the results of scheduled imaging of crystallization experiments. This integrated system will promote immeasurably structural biology at MIT. It will allow students and postdoctoral scientists to perform systematically crystallization experiments according to today<s standards. It will make feasible projects for which the amount of purified sample is limiting -- 10-15 fold reduction in protein used is a key benefit, because many of our targets are macromolecular complexes or proteins requiring expression in eukaryotic cells. Lastly, the system will save funds elsewhere, in salaried time spent and consumables expended, especially on difficult macromolecular crystallography projects. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The research interests of the primary users span the breadth of modern biology and biochemistry. The proposed equipment will allow us to pursue structural projects more systematically and thus more efficiently. It will enable us to pursue those structural targets of the most current biological and biomedical interest, which are, coincidentally, often the ones for which sufficient highly purified sample material is the hardest to produce.

描述（由申请人提供）：在这项提案中，麻省理工学院生物学和化学系的六名教师要求资助自动化大分子结晶设备安装在麻省理工学院的结构生物学核心设施。直到今年，麻省理工学院的结构生物学家还没有任何自动化的纳米级结晶设备，这种设备在大分子晶体学设施中越来越普遍。通过手动移液进行结晶筛选和优化。后续观察也是手动的。这种实验方法是费力的，重复的，浪费的-消耗大量的样品，是昂贵的生产。在结构蛋白质组学项目的推动下，最近的技术发展已经使现有的设备在很大程度上取代了筛选和初始优化的手动方法。作为第一步，这组结构生物学家最近购买了一个自动液体处理系统，用于纳米级结晶筛选。前两个月的结果超出了预期：样品材料有限的项目已经成为可能并已启动，改进的重现性使重点优化策略成为可能，并在创纪录的时间内发现了初步成果。申请的资金将用于扩大和补充这一液体处理系统，为最新的结晶设施提供必要的设备-即，一个移液机器人，以组成精确定制的网格屏幕，一个组合成像和存储系统，以跟踪结晶试验，以及存储和网络服务器，其具有足够的容量来记录并向研究者呈现预定的结晶成像结果实验这个综合系统将极大地促进麻省理工学院的结构生物学。它将允许学生和博士后科学家根据今天的标准进行系统的结晶实验。它将使纯化样品量有限的项目变得可行--所用蛋白质减少10-15倍是一个关键的好处，因为我们的许多目标是需要在真核细胞中表达的大分子复合物或蛋白质。最后，该系统将节省其他地方的资金，特别是在困难的大分子晶体学项目上，节省工资时间和消耗品。公共卫生相关性：主要用户的研究兴趣跨越现代生物学和生物化学的广度。拟议的设备将使我们能够更系统地进行结构项目，从而更有效地。它将使我们能够追求那些最新的生物学和生物医学利益的结构目标，巧合的是，往往是那些足够的高度纯化的样品材料是最难生产的。