Crystallization of the EGF receptor ectodomain on US space mission STS-47

Although biochemists working in the field of biological signal transduction have characterized cell surface receptors for numerous growth factors within the past ten years, none of the three-dimensional structures could be obtained for these important proteins which represent major components of the cells' growth control system. Now, the extracellular ligand binding domain of the EGF receptor was crystallized in the presence of EGF under microgravity on US Shuttle mission STS-47. In 8 out of 9 experiments prepared under different conditions crystal growth was observed. One of these space-grown crystals showed higher diffraction quality than all crystals previously obtained in the laboratory. It allowed, for the first time, evaluation of the real space group by partial data collection.