The space experiment of protein crystallization aboard the Chinese spacecraft SZ-3

Using new flight hardware, a Chinese mission of space protein crystallization has been performed aboard the Chinese spacecraft SZ-3. Preliminary analyses of the experimental results have shown that a few proteins produced better crystals in space. At least, the crystals of cytochrome b5 mutant could diffract X-ray beyond the highest resolution reported so far for the same kind of crystals. In addition, some rules derived from our numerical studies of the liquid/liquid diffusion protein crystallization were proved by the crystallization of lysozyme as model protein in this space experiment, which also clearly showed the advantages and disadvantages of the gelation of the protein solution used in microgravity growth of protein crystals.