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Title: Plug-and-play polymer microfluidic chips for hydrated, room temperature, fixed-target serial crystallography

Journal Article · · Lab on a Chip
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1039/d1lc00810b· OSTI ID:1884644
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [3];  [4]; ORCiD logo [5];  [3]; ORCiD logo [3];  [6];  [6]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States)
  2. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  3. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
  4. Lumen Bioscience, Seattle, WA (United States)
  5. Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute, Buffalo, NY (United States)
  6. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States)

The practice of serial X-ray crystallography (SX) depends on efficient, continuous delivery of hydrated protein crystals while minimizing background scattering. Of the two major types of sample delivery devices, fixed-target devices offer several advantages over widely adopted jet injectors, including: lower sample consumption, clog-free delivery, and the ability to control on-chip crystal density to improve hit rates. In this study we present our development of versatile, inexpensive, and robust polymer microfluidic chips for routine and reliable room temperature serial measurements at both synchrotrons and X-ray free electron lasers (XFELs). Our design includes highly X-ray-transparent enclosing thin film layers tuned to minimize scatter background, adaptable sample flow layers tuned to match crystal size, and a large sample area compatible with both raster scanning and rotation based serial data collection. The optically transparent chips can be used both for in situ protein crystallization (to eliminate crystal handling) or crystal slurry loading, with prepared samples stable for weeks in a humidified environment and for several hours in ambient conditions. Serial oscillation crystallography, using a multi-crystal rotational data collection approach, at a microfocus synchrotron beamline (SSRL, beamline 12-1) was used to benchmark the performance of the chips. Furthermore, high-resolution structures (1.3–2.7 Å) were collected from five different proteins – hen egg white lysozyme, thaumatin, bovine liver catalase, concanavalin-A (type VI), and SARS-CoV-2 nonstructural protein NSP5. Overall, our modular fabrication approach enables precise control over the cross-section of materials in the X-ray beam path and facilitates chip adaption to different sample and beamline requirements for user-friendly, straightforward diffraction measurements at room temperature.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); National Science Foundation (NSF); National Institutes of Health (NIH); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-07NA27344; 1231306; R01GM117342; U19 AI144184; AC02-76SF00515; P30GM133894
OSTI ID:
1884644
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1832617
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-829465; 1045356
Journal Information:
Lab on a Chip, Vol. 21, Issue 24; ISSN 1473-0197
Publisher:
Royal Society of ChemistryCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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