Protein crystal screening and characterization for serial femtosecond nanocrystallography.

Get it at UQ Library| Export | Download | Add to List | More... Scientific Reports Volume 6, 3 May 2016, Article number 25345 Open Access Protein crystal screening and characterization for serial femtosecond nanocrystallography (Article) Darmanin, C.a , Strachan, J.a, Adda, C.G.b, Ve, T.cd, Kobe, B.c, Abbey, B.ae a ARC Centre of Advanced Molecular Imaging, Department of Chemistry and Physics, La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia b Department of Biochemistry and Genetics, La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia c School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, Division of Chemistry and Structural Biology, Australian Infectious Diseases Research Centre, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia View additional affiliations View references (19) Abstract The recent development of X-ray free electron lasers (XFELs) has spurred the development of serial femtosecond nanocrystallography (SFX) which, for the first time, is enabling structure retrieval from sub-micron protein crystals. Although there are already a growing number of structures published using SFX, the technology is still very new and presents a number of unique challenges as well as opportunities for structural biologists. One of the biggest barriers to the success of SFX experiments is the preparation and selection of suitable protein crystal samples. Here we outline a protocol for preparing and screening for suitable XFEL targets.