Protein Crystallography Studies

The three-dimensional structure of a protein is predominantly determined by X-ray crystallography. This structural information is key to understanding its biological function, and plays a critical role in drug design and discovery, However, the growth of suitable protein crystals remains a major bottleneck in biophysics; each protein has its own specific set of crystallisation conditions and hundreds of trial experiments must be performed on any target protein. The high-resolution phase and contrast data of the interference fringes generated by the DPI technology in AnaLight® instruments provides important insights into the crystallisation process, allowing the distinction between protein crystallisation and other macromolecular physical processes such as aggregation and precipitation. AnaLight® can detect crystallisation at its very onset, the nucleation phase, 10-100 times faster than polarised microscopy. This early detection enables monitoring of the crystallisation process and hence the development and optimisation of crystallisation conditions in real time.

Application notes are available as PDF documents that can be either downloaded or viewed online:

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