Using sound pulses to solve the crystal-harvesting bottleneck
Yasmin N Samara1, Haley M Brennan1, Liam McCarthy1
1Office of Educational Programs, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973-5000, USA.
Acta Crystallographica. Section D, Structural Biology
|October 6, 2018
Summary
Automating crystal harvesting for structural biology is now possible using acoustic pulses. This method rapidly ejects crystals from plates, overcoming a major bottleneck in high-throughput screening and X-ray data collection.
Area of Science:
- Structural biology
- Biophysics
- Crystallography
Background:
- Crystal harvesting is a bottleneck for structure determination and high-throughput screening.
- Current methods limit the speed of X-ray data collection.
- Advancements in synchrotron technology exacerbate this bottleneck.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop an automated method for crystal harvesting.
- To address the rate-limiting step in structural biology workflows.
- To enable faster data acquisition for X-ray crystallography.
Main Methods:
- Crystals were acoustically harvested from modified MiTeGen In Situ-1 plates.
- An acoustic pulse ejected crystals into an air column and onto a micro-mesh.
- The technique allowed for individual or serial harvesting of crystals.
Main Results:
- A simple and effective acoustic method for crystal harvesting was demonstrated.
- The technique improved upon previous crystal transfer methods.
- Crystals could be harvested individually or combined with chemical libraries.
Conclusions:
- Acoustic harvesting offers a solution to the crystal harvesting bottleneck.
- This method supports high-throughput screening and rapid X-ray data collection.
- The technique is compatible with fragment-based drug discovery workflows.
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