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Updated: Jun 3, 2026

On-Chip Crystallization and Large-Scale Serial Diffraction at Room Temperature
Published on: March 11, 2022
It's all in the crystals…
1Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22908-0793, USA. zsd4n@virginia.edu
Abstract:
Macromolecular crystallography relies on the availability and quality of single crystals; these are typically obtained through extensive screening, which has a very low intrinsic success rate. Crystallization is not a completely stochastic process and many proteins do not succumb to crystallization because of specific microscopic features of their molecular surfaces. It follows that rational surface engineering through site-directed mutagenesis should allow a systematic and significant improvement in crystallization success rates. Here, one such established strategy, surface-entropy reduction (SER), is discussed, including its successes, limitations and possible future developments.
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