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X-Ray Crystallography

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X-Ray Crystallography
Ancillary X-ray Equipment

    Multiple crystal incubators run at a range of temperatures. Stereomicroscopes, including a Leica MZ16 stereomicroscope with a digital camera attachment for image capture and measuring diffusion rates into crystals, are available for manipulating crystals. Dynamic light scattering enables determination of the aggregation state of protein prior to crystallization trials. Frozen crystal storage and transport systems are maintained. There is a xenon derivatizer for introducing xenon into crystals to obtain phases for structure solution, or substrate gases, such as oxygen, to initiate enzymatic catalysis in crystals.
    Specialized facilities are housed in the Kahlert Structural Biology Laboratory (KSBL) to support researchers in the Center for Metals in Biocatalysis at the University of Minnesota, who work with oxygen sensitive and colored proteins (Wilmot, Ohlendorf, Lipscomb, King, Oetting, Que, Hooper, Wackett). Two anaerobic gloveboxes are available, including a box designed by Belle Technology specifically for crystallography purchased in 2001. This box enables anaerobic crystallizations to be set up at very low oxygen levels (< 1 ppm) and contains a microscope for handling crystals anaerobically, with the ability to freeze the crystals in liquid nitrogen prior to removal from the box to protect them from oxygen.
  In 2001 a single crystal UV/visible microspectrophotometer, with an Oxford Instruments low temperature Cryojet, was installed in the KSBL. The optics of the microspectrophotometer can also be mounted on the R-axis IV++ goniometer to enable spectral changes in crystals to be monitored during X-ray data collection. These facilities are available at only a handful of sites world-wide, and have put the University at the cutting edge of trapping catalytic intermediates in enzyme crystals. The rarity of these cutting edge facilities are attracting collaborations with outside researchers who do not have access to these capabilities.