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SUMMARY:Most recent development in crystalisation optimization and shotgun
  diffraction - Professor Seth Fraden\,  Brandeis University\,Waltham\, MA\
 , USA
DTSTART:20110729T130000Z
DTEND:20110729T140000Z
UID:TALK32199@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:24224
DESCRIPTION:There is no guarantee that a given protein has a crystalline p
 hase\, but if it does then it has been established that proteins crystalli
 ze like all other molecules through a process known as “nucleation and g
 rowth”. If a protein can be crystallized then it has optimal equilibrium
  crystallization conditions\; e.g. temperature\, protein concentration\, p
 H and precipitant type and concentration. Normally\, these conditions are 
 found through extensive screening followed by optimization around hits. Tr
 aditionally\, minimal attention is paid to the crystallization kinetics\, 
 but since nucleation and growth are both non-equilibrium processes\, super
 saturation kinetics plays an extremely important role in the crystallizati
 on process. The optimal crystallization strategy should not only screen eq
 uilibrium conditions\, but should screen kinetic trajectories through a 
 supersaturation “dimension”.\n\nThe most common crystallization method
 s are vapor phase and microbatch. Each method scans just one kinetic path 
 in which the supersaturation monotonically increases in time. The Crystal 
 Optimizer\, in contrast\, explores thousands of different kinetic paths in
  an attempt to find the optimal one in which supersaturation is held high 
 until one crystal nucleates then subsequently is lowered to suppress furth
 er nucleation\, while still allowing slow growth. One major virtue of our 
 technology is that it is designed to be low tech\, easy to use and cheap t
 o produce to facilitate adoption by the structural biology community.\n
LOCATION:Seminar Room\, Sanger Building
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