Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 27, 2025
An All-in-one Sample Holder for Macromolecular X-ray Crystallography with Minimal Background Scattering
Published on: July 6, 2019
Identifying and avoiding radiation damage in macromolecular crystallography
Kathryn L Shelley1, Elspeth F Garman1
1Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin Building, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QU, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
Radiation damage remains one of the major impediments to accurate structure solution in macromolecular crystallography. The artefacts of radiation damage can manifest as structural changes that result in incorrect biological interpretations being drawn from a model, they can reduce the resolution to which data can be collected and they can even prevent structure solution entirely. In this article, we discuss how to identify and mitigate against the effects of radiation damage at each stage in the macromolecular crystal structure-solution pipeline.
Related Concept Videos
01:10X-ray Diffraction of Biological Samples
According to Bragg's law, when X-rays strike the sample positioned on a stage, the rays are scattered by the electron clouds around the sample atoms. The X-ray diffraction or scattering is caused by constructive interference of the X-ray waves that reflect off the internal...
02:18X-ray Crystallography
Diffraction
Diffraction is the change in the direction of travel experienced by an electromagnetic wave when it encounters a physical barrier whose dimensions are comparable to those of the wavelength of the light. X-rays are electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths about as long as the distance between neighboring...