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Using sound pulses to solve the crystal‐harvesting bottleneck
Author(s) -
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
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
acta crystallographica section d
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 7.374
H-Index - 138
ISSN - 2059-7983
DOI - 10.1107/s2059798318011506
Subject(s) - bottleneck , crystallization , crystal (programming language) , limiting , materials science , work (physics) , throughput , computer science , acoustics , mechanical engineering , engineering , chemical engineering , physics , telecommunications , programming language , embedded system , wireless
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.