Cryo-Crystallography Options

Cryo-crystallography at crystal temperatures around 100 Kelvin has become the state-of-the-art in structural biology. The technique offers a number of advantages so obvious that room temperature measurements are not even considered. The most prominent benefits are:

  • Smaller number of crystals for a complete data collection required since radiation damage due to radical diffusion is stopped or slowed down
  • Increased diffraction intensities and higher diffraction resolution limit since thermal motion is decreased
  • Crystals can be screened in-house, stored at cryogenic temperatures prior to the synchrotron trip
  • The use of Cryo-Loops significantly lowers background diffraction compared to capillaries providing better signal to noise ratios

Commonly, crystals are ‘flash-cooled’, which means a crystal is placed quickly in a 100 K gas stream. However, not all protein crystals undergo the quick temperature drop without a loss in crystallinity. Individual cryo-conditions may need to be established. In general this involves empirical tests of cryo-protection agents. Usually, the tests are carried out on an in-house system prior to a planned synchrotron trip. Reliable and well established solutions are fully integrated into our Structural Biology solutions:

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X8 PROSPECTOR - High-throughput protein crystal screening

X8 PROTEUM - Your personal beamline