Integrated crystal mounting and alignment system for high-throughput biological crystallography
A method and apparatus for the transportation, remote and unattended mounting, and visual alignment and monitoring of protein crystals for synchrotron generated x-ray diffraction analysis. The protein samples are maintained at liquid nitrogen temperatures at all times: during shipment, before mounting, mounting, alignment, data acquisition and following removal. The samples must additionally be stably aligned to within a few microns at a point in space. The ability to accurately perform these tasks remotely and automatically leads to a significant increase in sample throughput and reliability for high-volume protein characterization efforts. Since the protein samples are placed in a shipping-compatible layered stack of sample cassettes each holding many samples, a large number of samples can be shipped in a single cryogenic shipping container.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of California, Oakland, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC03-76SF00098
- Assignee:
- The Regents of the University of California (Oakland, CA)
- Patent Number(s):
- 6,918,698
- Application Number:
- 10/319,282
- OSTI ID:
- 1175427
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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