Patent ID: 7504486

Claim:
A method of growing a crystal of a 50S ribosomal subunit from Haloarcula marismortui comprising: (a) isolating a 50S ribosomal subunit from Haloarcula marismortui ; (b) precipitating the 50S ribosomal subunit; (c) back-extracting or resuspending the precipitated 50S ribosomal subunit to obtain a solution; (d) seeding the back-extracted or resuspended solution of step (c); (e) growing a crystal of the 50S ribosomal subunit from the seeded solution of step (d) by vapor diffusion at room temperature; (f) harvesting the crystal from step (e); (g) stabilizing the harvested crystal by gradual transfer of said crystal into a series of solution containing high salt concentration of from about 1.2 M to 1.7 M; and (h) maintaining the crystal under high salt concentration, wherein the crystal (i) is untwinned, (ii) has an average thickness greater than about 15 μm, and (iii) diffracts X-rays to a resolution of at least 2.7 Å.