Automated harvesting and processing of protein crystals through laser photoablation.

Currently, macromolecular crystallography projects often require the use of highly automated facilities for crystallization and X-ray data collection. However, crystal harvesting and processing largely depend on manual operations. Here, a series of new methods are presented based on the use of a low X-ray-background film as a crystallization support and a photoablation laser that enable the automation of major operations required for the preparation of crystals for X-ray diffraction experiments.

A thermal stability assay can help to estimate the crystallization likelihood of biological samples.

The identification of crystallization conditions for biological molecules largely relies on a trial-and-error process in which a number of parameters are explored in large screening experiments. Currently, construct design and sample formulation are recognized as critical variables in this process and often a number of protein variants are assayed for crystallization either sequentially or in parallel, which adds complexity to the screening process. Significant effort is dedicated to sample characterization and quality-control experiments in order to identify at an early stage and prioritize those samples which would be more likely to crystallize.