Macromolecular crystallization facility

作为结构生物学核心的大分子结晶学，现在已经成熟为一种常规用于解决三维大分子结构的技术。目前，为生长大分子晶体寻找合适的条件限制了我们的进展。大分子结晶是一个反复尝试的过程，通常依赖于从以前成功的实验中得出的结晶条件。然而，由于我们对结晶过程的了解还很远，测试一小套结晶条件并不能保证成功。大规模的结晶条件筛选(1000-3000)大大增加了为大分子晶体生长找到合适条件的可能性，因为可以测试更多的实验参数。跟踪如此大量的结晶实验的结果需要一个自动成像平台，可以定期检查每个结晶条件。十几名研究人员的研究程序都依赖于大分子结构确定，他们将受益于获得成像平台。现有仪器的最新功能体现在CrystalPro平台上：温度敏感型晶体生长实验的大温度范围、用于晶体识别的UV/VIS荧光和图像识别、远程访问功能以及多达12,000种不同结晶条件的筛选。这个平台不仅允许研究人员进行日益复杂的项目，更重要的是，它将使他们能够在结构确定过程的早期快速确定成功的结晶条件，这是进行结构生物学研究计划的关键条件。该平台将为研究人员提供更大的能力，以确定将回答生物重要性问题的新结构。这些结构将极大地促进我们对大分子如何在分子水平上发挥作用的理解。

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.