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Updated: May 21, 2026

Microfluidic Chips for In Situ Crystal X-ray Diffraction and In Situ Dynamic Light Scattering for Serial Crystallography
Published on: April 24, 2018
Monitoring and scoring counter-diffusion protein crystallization experiments in capillaries by in situ dynamic light
Dominik Oberthuer1, Emilio Melero-García, Karsten Dierks
1Institute for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Laboratory for Structural Biology of infection and inflammation, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.
Abstract:
In this paper, we demonstrate the feasibility of using in situ Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) to monitor counter-diffusion crystallization experiments in capillaries. Firstly, we have validated the quality of the DLS signal in thin capillaries, which is comparable to that obtained in standard quartz cuvettes. Then, we have carried out DLS measurements of a counter-diffusion crystallization experiment of glucose isomerase in capillaries of different diameters (0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 mm) in order to follow the temporal evolution of protein supersaturation. Finally, we have compared DLS data with optical recordings of the progression of the crystallization front and with a simulation model of counter-diffusion in 1D.

