X-ray crystallography

Protein Crystallization. Our Institute is equipped with a Tecan robot for high throughput automated screening of crystal growth in 96-well format and volumes as small as 200 nL. For a new target protein, we routinely screen up to thousand different crystallization conditions varying several parameters such as pH, ionic strength and precipitating agents. The initial crystals are then optimized either with automated or manual set ups to obtain single crystals for the X‑ray diffraction experiments.

Documentation. A digital documentation system is in operation for the evaluation and recording of results.

We have an in-house rotating anode generator for single crystal X-ray diffraction experiments. The computer infrastructure in IBI-7 is equipped with a variety of crystallographic software required for the data analysis. Additionally, we have regular access to the beamlines at Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron (DESY) of the Helmholtz Association in Hamburg and to the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, France.

These facilities are available to researchers within the framework of collaborative projects.