The steps to make use of the Crystallization Center

What you get:

• 1,536 microbatch-under-oil crystallization screening experiments set up with your sample.
• Email notification and access to brightfield images of your experimental outcomes as they are recorded:
• cocktail only prior to adding sample (control)
• day 1
• weeks 1, 2, 3, 4 & 6
• Email notification and access to images from a Formulatrix Rock Imager 1000 SHG (to identify chiral crystals) and UV-TPEF (to determine if crystals are biological).
• These images are taken either at ~4 weeks (23°C samples) or ~6 weeks (4°C or 14°C samples) – you choose the protocol.
• Actual read time may vary slightly and is dependent upon the availability of the system.
• A total of nine sets of images recorded over the 6 week experimental duration.
  
• MARCO Polo software (python-base, multi-platform) to autoscore, view, annotate, and analyze images.
• MacroScopeJ software (Java-based, multi-platform) to view, annotate, and analyze images as well as associated chemical data.

Typically the experimental error for delivery of cocktails and/or protein is < 5% (most often the error is < 1%) and we use control experiments to rapidly identify and address any issues that arise.

Other information

Our philosophy: We provide capabilities at the highest standards for quality, reliability, efficiency, and productivity while providing confidentiality and expert support for challenging experiments. We want you to be successful and help that by providing cost-effective access to world-class research capabilities and maintaining competitiveness.

Confidentiality: Information will not be publicly disclosed regarding any sample received for crystallization trials without the express written consent of the investigator(s). Crystallization images obtained at the Crystallization Center for academic, government, and non-profit laboratories may be used to support the scientific research of the Center, as well as in publications. Images will be de-identified from sample and user information unless the consent of the investigator is obtained.

Acknowledgments:  Your use of the Crystallization Center is supported by federal funding. If the Center assists you in identifying initial crystallization conditions, we request that the NIH R24 National Resource grant is acknowledged in any publications. We suggest the following language: Crystallization screening at the National Crystallization Center at HWI was supported through NIH grant R24GM141256.

Additionally, it would be helpful if the experimental methods references the Crystallization Center using one of the updated references for the soluble and membrane screens.

• Lynch, ML, Snell, ME, Potter, SA, Snell, EH & Bowman, SEJ (2023). 20 years of crystal hits: progress and promise in ultrahigh-throughput crystallization screening. Acta Cryst. D79, 198-205.
  
• Budziszewski, GR, Snell, ME, Wright, TR, Lynch, ML & Bowman, SEJ (2023). High-Throughput Screening to Obtain Crystal Hits for Protein Crystallography. J. Vis. Exp. (193), e65211.

These citations help us to track publications and PDB depositions, an important metric of productivity that will help secure future funding for the Crystallization Center.

Mailing-list:  We like to keep users up to date with new developments, e.g. improved cocktails, analysis software, etc. If you would like to sign up for our mailing list to these notifications, please send a blank message to the following address: Announcements-subscribe@chtsb.org.

Special requirements: We can often accommodate special requirements, please contact us at htscenter@hwi.buffalo.edu. We are also open to collaborative studies to enhance crystallization success.