Growing and dissolving protein crystals in a levitated and containerless droplet

Yin, Da‐Chuan; Lu, Hui‐Meng; Luo, Geng; Shi, Z. H.; Luo, Hui-Min; Li, Haisheng; Ye, Ya-Jing; Guo, Weihong; Shang, Peng; Wakayama, Nobuko I.

doi:10.1016/j.jcrysgro.2007.12.059

Cited by 40 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…The large range of gradient magnetic fields allows for the simulation of gravities ranging from microgravity (~0 g) to hypergravity (~2 g). Such gravity simulation is useful in investigations that depend on gravity change (e.g., studies related to space exploration) [13,20–27]. …”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaporation Rate of Water as a Function of a Magnetic Field and Field Gradient

Guo

Yin

Cao

et al. 2012

IJMS

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The effect of magnetic fields on water is still a highly controversial topic despite the vast amount of research devoted to this topic in past decades. Enhanced water evaporation in a magnetic field, however, is less disputed. The underlying mechanism for this phenomenon has been investigated in previous studies. In this paper, we present an investigation of the evaporation of water in a large gradient magnetic field. The evaporation of pure water at simulated gravity positions (0 gravity level (ab. g), 1 g, 1.56 g and 1.96 g) in a superconducting magnet was compared with that in the absence of the magnetic field. The results showed that the evaporation of water was indeed faster in the magnetic field than in the absence of the magnetic field. Furthermore, the amount of water evaporation differed depending on the position of the sample within the magnetic field. In particular, the evaporation at 0 g was clearly faster than that at other positions. The results are discussed from the point of view of the evaporation surface area of the water/air interface and the convection induced by the magnetization force due to the difference in the magnetic susceptibility of water vapor and the surrounding air.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaporation Rate of Water as a Function of a Magnetic Field and Field Gradient

Guo

Yin

Cao

et al. 2012

IJMS

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“…Figure 4 shows the distribution of the gravitational force and Lorentz force of an object inside this superconducting magnet. Using such a magnet, Yin et al [11] showed that high-quality lysozyme crystals could be grown in container-less conditions [44]. They found that the orientation of multiple crystals occurred when they used different paramagnetic salts (CoCl 2 and NiCl 2 ) as precipitants at different concentrations [39].…”

Section: Magnet Systems That Provide a Strong And Stable Magnetic mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Schematic diagram of the superconducting magnet (JMTA-16T, JASTEC, Inc.) now installed at Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China [11]. …”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

An Overview of Hardware for Protein Crystallization in a Magnetic Field

Yan

Zhang

et al. 2016

IJMS

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Protein crystallization under a magnetic field is an interesting research topic because a magnetic field may provide a special environment to acquire improved quality protein crystals. Because high-quality protein crystals are very useful in high-resolution structure determination using diffraction techniques (X-ray, neutron, and electron diffraction), research using magnetic fields in protein crystallization has attracted substantial interest; some studies have been performed in the past two decades. In this research field, the hardware is especially essential for successful studies because the environment is special and the design and utilization of the research apparatus in such an environment requires special considerations related to the magnetic field. This paper reviews the hardware for protein crystallization (including the magnet systems and the apparatus designed for use in a magnetic field) and progress in this area. Future prospects in this field will also be discussed.

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“…Although experiments carried out in space have produced good results, Earth-based methods always have obvious attractions (Helliwell & Chayen, 2007). The magnetic field (Sazaki, 1997;Yin et al, 2004Yin et al, , 2008 and gel methods (García-Ruiz et al, 2001) have been used to reduce the effect of convective flow on protein crystallization. Microfluidics also can provide the advantages of microgravity on Earth.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and application of a microfluidic device for protein crystallization using an evaporation-based crystallization technique

Wang

Oberthür

et al. 2011

J Appl Cryst

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A new crystallization system is described, which makes it possible to use an evaporation-based microfluidic crystallization technique for protein crystallization. The gas and water permeability of the used polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) material enables evaporation of the protein solution in the microfluidic device. The rates of evaporation are controlled by the relative humidity conditions, which are adjusted in a precise and stable way by using saturated solutions of different reagents. The protein crystals could nucleate and grow under different relative humidity conditions. Using this method, crystal growth could be improved so that approximately 1 mm-sized lysozyme crystals were obtained more successfully than using standard methods. The largest lysozyme crystal obtained reached 1.57 mm in size. The disadvantage of the good gas permeability in PDMS microfluidic devices becomes an advantage for protein crystallization. The radius distributions of aggregrates in the solutions inside the described microfluidic devices were derived fromin situdynamic light scattering measurements. The experiments showed that the environment inside of the microfluidic device is more stable than that of conventional crystallization techniques. However, the morphological results showed that the protein crystals grown in the microfluidic device could lose their morphological stability. Air bubbles in microfluidic devices play an important role in the evaporation progress. A model was constructed to analyze the relationship of the rates of evaporation and the growth of air bubbles to the relative humidity.

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Growing and dissolving protein crystals in a levitated and containerless droplet

Cited by 40 publications

References 41 publications

Evaporation Rate of Water as a Function of a Magnetic Field and Field Gradient

Evaporation Rate of Water as a Function of a Magnetic Field and Field Gradient

An Overview of Hardware for Protein Crystallization in a Magnetic Field

Design and application of a microfluidic device for protein crystallization using an evaporation-based crystallization technique

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