X-ray diffractometer for macromolecular crystallography

有了这项主要研究仪器的建议，我们希望应用单晶X射线衍射仪作为大分子结晶学的主要仪器。使用这个仪器，我们想要主要从结构上表征蛋白质和蛋白质复合体。但除此之外，该仪器还应具有测定小分子结构的能力。这对格雷夫斯瓦尔德研究界的几个研究实验室来说很重要。X射线衍射仪将形成一个功能单元，用于96孔格式的晶体筛选。与衍射仪配套的还有一个液体搬运机器人(屏幕生成器)，一个执行纳米结晶实验的机器人，以及一个由平板旅馆和摄像系统组成的结晶板文件系统。该仪器仅用于制备蛋白质晶体，以便随后用X射线衍射仪进行分析。虽然蛋白质晶体的分析是系统的中心，但该系统也应该能够对小分子晶体进行数据收集和数据处理，因为它也将在很小程度上用于小分子结构的确定。这个应用程序的重点是建立一个系统，允许我们以96孔格式进行晶体筛选。这包括筛选程序，但也有可能在96孔板内进行原位X射线衍射实验。X射线衍射仪上游的所有仪器，即液体搬运机器人、纳升结晶机器人和文件系统，仅用于生产和优化晶体，供X射线衍射仪随后进行分析。这些仪器不会在实验室中用于任何其他用途。现有的仪器有缺陷、陈旧，不能满足当今进行高通量结晶实验的需求。只有在实验室配备了液体搬运机器人、纳米结晶机器人和文件系统后，X射线衍射仪才能高效地使用和充分利用能力。所有仪器都构成了X射线结晶学的一个功能单元，因此适用于这项主要的研究仪器提案。这对于格雷夫斯瓦尔德研究界的未来发展极其重要，因为我们的团队是格雷夫斯瓦尔德大学和联邦梅克伦堡-伏尔波默恩作为一个整体唯一的大分子结晶学小组，因此进行和建立内部和外部合作是极其重要的。

With this proposal for major research instrumentation we want to apply for a single crystal X-ray diffractometer as major instrument for macromolecular crystallography. Using this instrument, we want to primarily structurally characterize proteins and protein complexes. However, besides the instrument should be capable for small molecule structure determination. This is important for several research laboratories in the Greifswald research community. The X-ray diffractometer will form a functional unit for crystal screening in 96-well format. The diffractometer is complemented by a liquid handling robot (screen builder), a robot to perform nanolitre crystallization experiments and a documentation system for the crystallization plates consisting of a plate hotel and a camera system. This instrumentation is solely used for preparation of protein crystals for subsequent analysis by the X-ray diffractometer. Although the analysis of protein crystals is in the center of the system, the system should be capable to also conduct data collection and data processing for small molecule crystals as it will be used also to a small extend for small molecule structure determination. In the focus of this application is to set up a system that allows us to perform crystal screening in 96-well format. This includes the screening procedure but also the possibility to perform in situ X-ray diffraction experiments within the 96-well plates. All instrumentation upstream of the X-ray diffractometer, i.e. the liquid handling robot, the robot for nanolitre crystallization and the documentation system, solely serve to produce and to optimize crystals for subsequent analysis by the X-ray diffractometer. These instruments will not be used for any other applications in the laboratory. The existing instrumentation is defective, obsolete and does not cope with todays demand performing high throughput crystallization experiments. The X-ray diffractometer can only be used efficiently and used to capacity is the laboratory is equipped with liquid handling robot, a nanolitre crystallization robot and a documentation system. All instrumentation forms a functional unit for X-ray crystallography and is therefore applied for in this major research instrumentation proposal. This is extremely important for the future development of the research community in Greifswald, to conduct and establish internal and external collaborations as our group is the only group on macromolecular crystallography at Greifswald University and in the federal state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern as a whole.