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Updated: Apr 15, 2026
Microfluidic Chips for In Situ Crystal X-ray Diffraction and In Situ Dynamic Light Scattering for Serial Crystallography
Published on: April 24, 2018
A method of cryoprotection for protein crystallography by using a microfluidic chip and its application for in situ
Masatoshi Maeki1,2,3, Ashtamurthy S Pawate4, Kenichi Yamashita1,3
1†Department of Molecular and Material Sciences, Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Engineering Sciences, Kyushu University, 6-1 Kasuga-Koen, Kasuga, Fukuoka 816-8580, Japan.
Abstract:
We demonstrate a seamless and contactless method from protein crystallization to X-ray analysis using a microfluidic chip with the aim of obtaining a complete crystallographic data set of a protein crystal under cryogenic conditions. Our microfluidics-based approach did not require direct manipulation of the protein crystal. Therefore, the microfluidic chip approach is suitable for novices of X-ray analysis of protein crystals. We also investigated the effect of stepwise cryoprotection on the quality of protein crystals. Protein crystals with cryoprotection via on-chip manipulation did not show deterioration of crystallographic quality of the protein crystal. The complete diffraction data set of a protein crystal, which is required for determining the 3D structure of the target protein, is obtainable by a simple manipulation.
