University of California

Joseph M Jaklevich

Earl Cornell

Raymond C Stevens

Robert A Nordmeyer

Derek T Yegian

Bernard D Santarsiero

Gyorgy Snell

William F Kolbe

Thomas N Earnest

Carl W Cork

A method and apparatus for the transportation, remote and unattended mounting, and visual alignment and monitoring of protein crystals for synchrotron generated x-ray diffraction analysis. The protein samples are maintained at liquid nitrogen temperatures at all times: during shipment, before mounting, mounting, alignment, data acquisition and following removal. The samples must additionally be stably aligned to within a few microns at a point in space. The ability to accurately perform these tasks remotely and automatically leads to a significant increase in sample throughput and reliability for high-volume protein characterization efforts. Since the protein samples are placed in a shipping-compatible layered stack of sample cassettes each holding many samples, a large number of samples can be shipped in a single cryogenic shipping container.

Integrated crystal mounting and alignment system for high-throughput biological crystallography

Growing community of inventors

Lafayette, CA, United States of America

Joseph M Jaklevich