Crystal Screening and Growth (CSG)

CSG with key equipment labeled

The CSG occupies about 500 sq. ft. of the Scott Research Tower and uses robotics to automatically screen and refine crystallization conditions while maintaining detailed electronic experimental records. The facility also has a specialized equipment to perform automated western blots as well as characterize protein samples.

IdDescriptionImage
aPeggy Sue™ lets you separate and analyze proteins by size or charge from 2-440 kDa either by immunoassay or total protein. Got small sample volumes or starting materials? No problem. She uses as little as 0.2 µg/µL of protein in just 5 µL of sample, and runs up to 96 samples in one experiment.
bFreedom EVO 150 is controlled by RockMaker to create random and grid screens directly in the experiment plate or deep well screens. The Freedom EVO 150 is used to mix the well solutions only. Crystallization drops are finished with the Phoenix or by hand in the case of 24 well hanging drops.
cThe Formulatrix RockImager 54 is used to automatically image 96 and 24 well crystallization experiments. It holds 54 plates at a time. We also have two additional racks that can swap 9 plates at a time.
dThe Crystal Gryphon is a small, fast and affordable option for setting up all of your crystal plates. The Crystal Gryphon fits into tight lab spaces and tight lab budgets.

The 96-channel positive displacement head quickly fills screen reservoirs and protein wells. The head has no disposable tips, so the cost of operation and environmental waste is minimized.

The 1-channel non-contact dispenser quickly aspirates and dispenses your proteins allowing your plate to be sealed without evaporation being a problem. This dispense head is designed specifically to handle proteins, features flow-through washing and positive displacement aspiration, to handle all of your proteins.
eWyatt Technologies DLS (Dynamic Light Scattering) system. The DLS system can determine the number of species in solution. It is useful to prescreen protein samples/buffers to find conditions where the protein exists as a single species in solution, for example, all monomers or all dimers. Solutions with only one species have been shown to greatly increase the chance of crystallization.
fRuMed 3000 series incubators with programmable temperature profiles. Each incubator can hold around 1000 experiment plates. Typically they are set to maintain constant temperature at 20°C. A dedicated cold room is also available for crystallization at 4°C.
gOpenSPR is a benchtop surface plasmon resonance (SPR) instrument. It provides high quality, label-free interaction analysis for a fraction of the cost of existing solutions. Our unique nano-structured sensor surface uses localized SPR (LSPR) to deliver repeatable, highly sensitive kinetic data.
hSEC-MALS (Size Exclusion Chromatrography with Multi Angle Light Scattering) system consisting of an Agilent Technologies 1260 Infinity Analytical Chromatography System with an auto-injector, Shodex, Waters, and GE analytical size exclusion columns, Wyatt Technologies MiniDawn TREOS and Wyatt Technologies
OptiLab T-rex. This system is capable of very precise measurement of sample molecular weight (less than 1% error).