This volume was reduced from 2 microliters, a routine quantity, to the nanoliter range. Protein crystals of suitable size were successfully grown for diffraction using the nanoliter droplets. The next phase is to further develop and test an automated system for the loading and recovery of protein microcrystals undergoing single crystal x-ray diffraction analysis. All manipulations are now done manually and samples can be easily damaged and become unusable. This procedure typically takes 5-15 minutes per crystal sample depending on the experience of the user.
Additional time is lost moving in and out of the hutch with radiation safety protocols.
The objective is the remote and, eventually, unattended mounting and alignment of a large number of crystals in a serial processing format. Current plans call for the development of a cryogenically cooled cassette that contains multiple crystals. The crystals are mounted in place by a robot. Multiple cassettes can be daisy chained to extend the time interval of remote operation. The project will also design a cassette manipulator for the loading and unloading of several samples in a single run at the MCF 5.0.3 beamline, develop a remotely operated protein crystal alignment system, and adapt the hardware to the alignment of the microcrystals.