Cargando…

Fully automatic characterization and data collection from crystals of biological macromolecules

Considerable effort is dedicated to evaluating macromolecular crystals at synchrotron sources, even for well established and robust systems. Much of this work is repetitive, and the time spent could be better invested in the interpretation of the results. In order to decrease the need for manual int...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Svensson, Olof, Malbet-Monaco, Stéphanie, Popov, Alexander, Nurizzo, Didier, Bowler, Matthew W.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: International Union of Crystallography 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4528805/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26249356
http://dx.doi.org/10.1107/S1399004715011918
_version_ 1782384708346183680
author Svensson, Olof
Malbet-Monaco, Stéphanie
Popov, Alexander
Nurizzo, Didier
Bowler, Matthew W.
author_facet Svensson, Olof
Malbet-Monaco, Stéphanie
Popov, Alexander
Nurizzo, Didier
Bowler, Matthew W.
author_sort Svensson, Olof
collection PubMed
description Considerable effort is dedicated to evaluating macromolecular crystals at synchrotron sources, even for well established and robust systems. Much of this work is repetitive, and the time spent could be better invested in the interpretation of the results. In order to decrease the need for manual intervention in the most repetitive steps of structural biology projects, initial screening and data collection, a fully automatic system has been developed to mount, locate, centre to the optimal diffraction volume, characterize and, if possible, collect data from multiple cryocooled crystals. Using the capabilities of pixel-array detectors, the system is as fast as a human operator, taking an average of 6 min per sample depending on the sample size and the level of characterization required. Using a fast X-ray-based routine, samples are located and centred systematically at the position of highest diffraction signal and important parameters for sample characterization, such as flux, beam size and crystal volume, are automatically taken into account, ensuring the calculation of optimal data-collection strategies. The system is now in operation at the new ESRF beamline MASSIF-1 and has been used by both industrial and academic users for many different sample types, including crystals of less than 20 µm in the smallest dimension. To date, over 8000 samples have been evaluated on MASSIF-1 without any human intervention.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4528805
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2015
publisher International Union of Crystallography
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-45288052015-08-24 Fully automatic characterization and data collection from crystals of biological macromolecules Svensson, Olof Malbet-Monaco, Stéphanie Popov, Alexander Nurizzo, Didier Bowler, Matthew W. Acta Crystallogr D Biol Crystallogr Research Papers Considerable effort is dedicated to evaluating macromolecular crystals at synchrotron sources, even for well established and robust systems. Much of this work is repetitive, and the time spent could be better invested in the interpretation of the results. In order to decrease the need for manual intervention in the most repetitive steps of structural biology projects, initial screening and data collection, a fully automatic system has been developed to mount, locate, centre to the optimal diffraction volume, characterize and, if possible, collect data from multiple cryocooled crystals. Using the capabilities of pixel-array detectors, the system is as fast as a human operator, taking an average of 6 min per sample depending on the sample size and the level of characterization required. Using a fast X-ray-based routine, samples are located and centred systematically at the position of highest diffraction signal and important parameters for sample characterization, such as flux, beam size and crystal volume, are automatically taken into account, ensuring the calculation of optimal data-collection strategies. The system is now in operation at the new ESRF beamline MASSIF-1 and has been used by both industrial and academic users for many different sample types, including crystals of less than 20 µm in the smallest dimension. To date, over 8000 samples have been evaluated on MASSIF-1 without any human intervention. International Union of Crystallography 2015-07-31 /pmc/articles/PMC4528805/ /pubmed/26249356 http://dx.doi.org/10.1107/S1399004715011918 Text en © Svensson et al. 2015 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/uk/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are cited.
spellingShingle Research Papers
Svensson, Olof
Malbet-Monaco, Stéphanie
Popov, Alexander
Nurizzo, Didier
Bowler, Matthew W.
Fully automatic characterization and data collection from crystals of biological macromolecules
title Fully automatic characterization and data collection from crystals of biological macromolecules
title_full Fully automatic characterization and data collection from crystals of biological macromolecules
title_fullStr Fully automatic characterization and data collection from crystals of biological macromolecules
title_full_unstemmed Fully automatic characterization and data collection from crystals of biological macromolecules
title_short Fully automatic characterization and data collection from crystals of biological macromolecules
title_sort fully automatic characterization and data collection from crystals of biological macromolecules
topic Research Papers
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4528805/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26249356
http://dx.doi.org/10.1107/S1399004715011918
work_keys_str_mv AT svenssonolof fullyautomaticcharacterizationanddatacollectionfromcrystalsofbiologicalmacromolecules
AT malbetmonacostephanie fullyautomaticcharacterizationanddatacollectionfromcrystalsofbiologicalmacromolecules
AT popovalexander fullyautomaticcharacterizationanddatacollectionfromcrystalsofbiologicalmacromolecules
AT nurizzodidier fullyautomaticcharacterizationanddatacollectionfromcrystalsofbiologicalmacromolecules
AT bowlermattheww fullyautomaticcharacterizationanddatacollectionfromcrystalsofbiologicalmacromolecules