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Title: Using sound pulses to solve the crystal-harvesting bottleneck

Abstract

Crystal harvesting has proven to be difficult to automate and remains the rate-limiting step for many structure-determination and high-throughput screening projects. This has resulted in crystals being prepared more rapidly than they can be harvested for X-ray data collection. Fourth-generation synchrotrons will support extraordinarily rapid rates of data acquisition, putting further pressure on the crystal-harvesting bottleneck. Here, a simple solution is reported in which crystals can be acoustically harvested from slightly modified MiTeGen In Situ -1 crystallization plates. This technique uses an acoustic pulse to eject each crystal out of its crystallization well, through a short air column and onto a micro-mesh (improving on previous work, which required separately grown crystals to be transferred before harvesting). Crystals can be individually harvested or can be serially combined with a chemical library such as a fragment library.

Authors:
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ORCiD logo
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1475235
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1483750
Report Number(s):
BNL-209517-2018-JAAM
Journal ID: ISSN 2059-7983; ACSDAD; PII: S2059798318011506
Grant/Contract Number:  
KP1605010; SC0012704
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Published Article
Journal Name:
Acta Crystallographica. Section D. Structural Biology
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: Acta Crystallographica. Section D. Structural Biology Journal Volume: 74 Journal Issue: 10; Journal ID: ISSN 2059-7983
Publisher:
International Union of Crystallography (IUCr)
Country of Publication:
United Kingdom
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; crystal harvesting; acoustic droplet ejection; crystal mounting; automation; crystallography; microcrystals; high-throughput screening; drug discovery

Citation Formats

Samara, Yasmin N., Brennan, Haley M., McCarthy, Liam, Bollard, Mary T., Laspina, Denise, Wlodek, Jakub M., Campos, Stefanie L., Natarajan, Ramya, Gofron, Kazimierz, McSweeney, Sean, Soares, Alexei S., and Leroy, Ludmila. Using sound pulses to solve the crystal-harvesting bottleneck. United Kingdom: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1107/S2059798318011506.
Samara, Yasmin N., Brennan, Haley M., McCarthy, Liam, Bollard, Mary T., Laspina, Denise, Wlodek, Jakub M., Campos, Stefanie L., Natarajan, Ramya, Gofron, Kazimierz, McSweeney, Sean, Soares, Alexei S., & Leroy, Ludmila. Using sound pulses to solve the crystal-harvesting bottleneck. United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.1107/S2059798318011506
Samara, Yasmin N., Brennan, Haley M., McCarthy, Liam, Bollard, Mary T., Laspina, Denise, Wlodek, Jakub M., Campos, Stefanie L., Natarajan, Ramya, Gofron, Kazimierz, McSweeney, Sean, Soares, Alexei S., and Leroy, Ludmila. 2018. "Using sound pulses to solve the crystal-harvesting bottleneck". United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.1107/S2059798318011506.
@article{osti_1475235,
title = {Using sound pulses to solve the crystal-harvesting bottleneck},
author = {Samara, Yasmin N. and Brennan, Haley M. and McCarthy, Liam and Bollard, Mary T. and Laspina, Denise and Wlodek, Jakub M. and Campos, Stefanie L. and Natarajan, Ramya and Gofron, Kazimierz and McSweeney, Sean and Soares, Alexei S. and Leroy, Ludmila},
abstractNote = {Crystal harvesting has proven to be difficult to automate and remains the rate-limiting step for many structure-determination and high-throughput screening projects. This has resulted in crystals being prepared more rapidly than they can be harvested for X-ray data collection. Fourth-generation synchrotrons will support extraordinarily rapid rates of data acquisition, putting further pressure on the crystal-harvesting bottleneck. Here, a simple solution is reported in which crystals can be acoustically harvested from slightly modified MiTeGen In Situ -1 crystallization plates. This technique uses an acoustic pulse to eject each crystal out of its crystallization well, through a short air column and onto a micro-mesh (improving on previous work, which required separately grown crystals to be transferred before harvesting). Crystals can be individually harvested or can be serially combined with a chemical library such as a fragment library.},
doi = {10.1107/S2059798318011506},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1475235}, journal = {Acta Crystallographica. Section D. Structural Biology},
issn = {2059-7983},
number = 10,
volume = 74,
place = {United Kingdom},
year = {Tue Oct 02 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Tue Oct 02 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record at https://doi.org/10.1107/S2059798318011506

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 6 works
Citation information provided by
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