Macromolecular crystallization facility

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Macromolecular crystallography, central to structural biology, has now matured into a technique routinely used to solve 3D macromolecular structures. Currently, finding the right conditions for growing macromolecule crystals limits our progress. Macromolecular crystallization is a trial and error process that often relies on crystallization conditions derived from previous successful experiments. However, as we are still far from understanding the crystallization process, testing a small set of crystallization conditions is not guaranteed to lead to success. Large-scale screening of crystallization conditions (1000-3000) considerably increases the probability of finding the right conditions for macromolecular crystal growth, since a larger number of experimental parameters can be tested. Tracking the outcomes of such a large number of crystallization experiments requires an automated imaging platform that can inspect each crystallization condition at regular time intervals. A dozen investigators whose research programs all depend on macromolecular structure determination will benefit from access to an imaging platform. The latest features in available instrumentation are embodied in the CrystalPro platform: a large temperature range for temperature-sensitive crystal growth experiments, UV/Vis fluorescence and image recognition for crystal identification, remote access capability, and screening of up to different 12,000 crystallization conditions. This platform will not only permit the researchers to pursue projects of increasing complexity, but more importantly, it will enable them to rapidly identify successful crystallization conditions very early in the structure determination process, a critical condition for pursuing a structural biology research program. The platform will offer the researchers increased capacity for determining new structures that will answer questions of biological importance. These structures will greatly advance our understanding of how macromolecules function at the molecular level.