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Crystal Growth: Principles of Crystallization

Crystal Growth: Principles of Crystallization

Crystallization is a phase transformation process in which crystals are precipitated from a supersaturated solution or formed from other sources. During crystallization, atoms or molecules arrange themselves into a well-defined, rigid crystal lattice to minimize energy.
Initiating crystallization involves manipulating the concentration of the solute and the temperature of the solution. Since crystal growth occurs when the ratio of concentration and solubility of the solute in the solvent...

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Updated: Feb 26, 2026

Protein Crystallization for X-ray Crystallography

Protein Crystallization for X-ray Crystallography

Published on: January 16, 2011

Microgravity protein crystallization.

Alexander McPherson¹, Lawrence James DeLucas²

¹University of California, Irvine, CA, USA.

NPJ Microgravity

|July 21, 2017

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Scientists explored microgravity to crystallize large macromolecules like proteins. This approach aims to overcome challenges in producing high-quality crystals for X-ray crystallography structure determination.

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Published on: March 11, 2022

Area of Science:

Structural Biology
Biophysics
Materials Science

Background:

Technological advances have reduced macromolecular structure determination time using X-ray crystallography.
Producing diffraction-quality crystals remains a significant bottleneck for structural analysis.
Automated systems and protein engineering have improved crystallization but many proteins remain challenging.

Purpose of the Study:

To explore the use of microgravity environments for crystallizing macromolecules.
To address the persistent challenge of obtaining suitable crystals for X-ray structure determination.
To summarize the history and results of an international microgravity crystallization initiative.

Main Methods:

Utilizing microgravity environments for macromolecular crystallization.
Employing automated crystallization systems and protein engineering techniques.
Developing specialized flight hardware for space-based experiments.

Main Results:

Microgravity conditions were explored for crystallizing proteins and nucleic acids.
Crystallization results from space experiments were analyzed.
The study summarizes findings from an international collaborative effort.

Conclusions:

Microgravity offers a potential solution to overcome crystallization challenges in structural biology.
Further research and development in space-based crystallization are warranted.
This international initiative highlights progress in advancing macromolecular crystallography.