Crystallization Cocktails

Crystallization is carried out using 1,536 different chemical cocktails. These are grouped by generation. As of September 2024, we are rolling out Generation 22 for the soluble screen. Please note there have been major changes to the locations of cocktails within the plates for both generation 21 and generation 22, as well as some updates to some of the actual cocktails. The MARCO Polo GUI and the legacy MacroscopeJ software have both been updated to map all conditions correctly.

Each generation represents successive improvements in capability and performance (note there were no changes between generation 17 to generation 20). In the table below the cocktails are detailed by most recent first with the plate number (the code associated with each sample submitted) and the dates that the cocktails were in use. A download option links to an Excel file containing chemical details of the cocktail.

We’ve published two recent papers describing the history (20 years of crystal hits: progress and promise in ultrahigh-throughput crystallization screening) and current operations (High-Throughput Screening to Obtain Crystal Hits for Protein Crystallography) in the HTX Center.  Please remember to cite one of the papers and the grant in any papers making use of crystal hits identified in the HTX Center.  We suggest the following language for citing the grant: Crystallization screening at the National Crystallization Center at HWI was supported through NIH grant R24GM141256.

Soluble sample cocktails are shown first followed by those used for membrane-based sample screening. Soluble sample experiments are donated by an ‘X’ number, while membrane samples by an ‘M’ number for sample identification.

National Crystallization Center High-Throughput Cocktails