The
Crystal Screen Wizard
X-ray crystallography tools to help you collate and analyze your protein and DNA crystal screening trials
X-ray crystallography tools to help you collate and analyze your protein and DNA crystal screening trials
Unless specifically stated, no
user input is recorded from this web page.
However, any groups willing to share data and collaborate with the author should send an e-mail to the address below.
However, any groups willing to share data and collaborate with the author should send an e-mail to the address below.
Introduction
If you have javascript enabled, the tab at the top-left of the page should have automatically opened to show the menu. You can click on the tab to shrink it.
If you don't have javascript enabled, you can use the links at the bottom of the page; however, some features such as drag-and-drop in the "custom order" page will not work unless javascript is enabled.
If you have javascript enabled, the tab at the top-left of the page should have automatically opened to show the menu. You can click on the tab to shrink it.
If you don't have javascript enabled, you can use the links at the bottom of the page; however, some features such as drag-and-drop in the "custom order" page will not work unless javascript is enabled.
SCORE
SHEETS CAN BE FOUND BY CLICKING ON THE "e-Score Sheet" BUTTONS IN THE
NAVIGATION MENU
This site will (eventually!) include
all major crystallization screening kits from: Emerald Biosystems,
Hampton Research,
Jena Biosciences,
Molecular
Dimensions, Qiagen,
and Sigma.
You also have the option to include your own screens without needing an
account.
Please feel free to link this page on your website.
Background
This project was originally started to try and determine the optimal buffer for a protein I was working on as a new post-doc, which precipitated at concentrations higher than ~6mg/mL. I wanted to find a methodical way of improving the storage buffer, and so maintaining a stable protein at concentrations typcially used in protein crystallization. The methodology is based on papers by Collins et al., and Jancarik et al. (see refs below). I basically wanted to see if there were common reagents in a crystal screen which yielded clear drops after 1 day and 1 week, respectively. From this, I could have a good idea of what buffer components my protein liked/disliked. To have a decent sample size, this requires at least one 96 condition screen, and given that commercial screens generally use space matrix technology, there is low overlap of conditions. There are great web servers and stand-alone programs out there which can analyze screening results, and even help in optimization (CLIMS, CRYStool, XAct, XtalBase, Xtrack - plus others); however, I wanted a simple point-and-click system which just analyses screening trials, and gives an easy to read summary of which components of a screen keep the protein "happy". Undeterred, I wrote some PHP code and an HTML front end to search a database of screens in the laboratory I was at.
To cut a long story short, I stopped working on the project before I had chance to really test the practicality of the method for myself.
While I was waiting my visa to be processed I spent time developing the code to examine all drop appearance types; this also looks to see if certain reagents are destabilizing the protein (i.e., causing heavy precipitation), and it doesn't ignore promising conditions which could be optimized to yield diffracting crystals, such as light precipitate and phase separation. Even if the conditions analysis tool isn’t used, it makes a nice record of your trays to print out and stick in your lab notebook!
I have also written a few other tools, such as the salt crystal predictor and quick lookup tool, which might be useful to new and experienced crystallographers alike!
Future
While I have free time, I will continue to develop this web server. Please contact me using the e-mail address below with any comments, suggestions, or to report bugs.
Refs
Collins, R. et al. Acta Cryst. Sect. F 2005
Jancarik, J. et al. Acta Cryst. Sect. D 2004
Please feel free to link this page on your website.
Background
This project was originally started to try and determine the optimal buffer for a protein I was working on as a new post-doc, which precipitated at concentrations higher than ~6mg/mL. I wanted to find a methodical way of improving the storage buffer, and so maintaining a stable protein at concentrations typcially used in protein crystallization. The methodology is based on papers by Collins et al., and Jancarik et al. (see refs below). I basically wanted to see if there were common reagents in a crystal screen which yielded clear drops after 1 day and 1 week, respectively. From this, I could have a good idea of what buffer components my protein liked/disliked. To have a decent sample size, this requires at least one 96 condition screen, and given that commercial screens generally use space matrix technology, there is low overlap of conditions. There are great web servers and stand-alone programs out there which can analyze screening results, and even help in optimization (CLIMS, CRYStool, XAct, XtalBase, Xtrack - plus others); however, I wanted a simple point-and-click system which just analyses screening trials, and gives an easy to read summary of which components of a screen keep the protein "happy". Undeterred, I wrote some PHP code and an HTML front end to search a database of screens in the laboratory I was at.
To cut a long story short, I stopped working on the project before I had chance to really test the practicality of the method for myself.
While I was waiting my visa to be processed I spent time developing the code to examine all drop appearance types; this also looks to see if certain reagents are destabilizing the protein (i.e., causing heavy precipitation), and it doesn't ignore promising conditions which could be optimized to yield diffracting crystals, such as light precipitate and phase separation. Even if the conditions analysis tool isn’t used, it makes a nice record of your trays to print out and stick in your lab notebook!
I have also written a few other tools, such as the salt crystal predictor and quick lookup tool, which might be useful to new and experienced crystallographers alike!
Future
While I have free time, I will continue to develop this web server. Please contact me using the e-mail address below with any comments, suggestions, or to report bugs.
Refs
Collins, R. et al. Acta Cryst. Sect. F 2005
Jancarik, J. et al. Acta Cryst. Sect. D 2004
This software is presented "as is", and there is no guarantee it is free of bugs or errors.
