Crystallization Cocktails

Crystallization is carried out using 1,536 different chemical cocktails. These are grouped by generation. As of April 2023, we are rolling out Generation 21 for the soluble screen. Please note there have been major changes to the locations of cocktails within the plates, 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

Cocktail GenerationPlate NumbersDates usedDownload
 Soluble (standard) sample screens
21*X16405 -

X1-10226 - (proprietary)
04/12/2023 - currentdownload
20*X16101 - X16404

X1-10100 - X1-10225 (proprietary)
09/21/2021 - 04/11/2023download
19*X15790 - X1610003/17/2020 - 9/20/2021download
18*X15568 - X1578910/23/2018 - 3/16/2020download
17*X15299 - X1556707/18/2017 - 10/22/2018download
16 X14970 - X1529811/17/2015 - 06/28/2017download
15X14714 - X1496911/12/2014 - 11/6/2015download
14X14246 - X1471310/16/2013 - 11/05/2014download
*Note .xls files for generation 17-21 reflect the physical location in the 1,536 well in the 'well position' column
Membrane sample screens
9M908 -04/04/2022 - currentdownload
8M807 - M90711/30/2015 - 04/03/2022download