Hi Junhua,
you should contact TSA in Houston, speak to them prior to your flight
arrange a contact person who will be there when you are traveling. Send
them a Fax explaining what and why you are carrying your crystals with
you and how e.g. small cooler with pads etc. I carried some RT 96 well
trays from Seattle to the Berkeley and Stanford in 2004/2005 without
troubles. Now things might have changed again with the "3 once liquid
rule". It might also help if you have an "American" take care of your
crystals during the flight. People with visa's might be too suspicious.
Main point plan ahead and speak to the authorities. I wouldn't trust
Fedex with RT crystals. Or drive them yourself to Chicago (2 days ?).
Jürgen
Junhua Pan wrote:
Dear all,
Sorry for the non CCP4 questions. We would like to ship some virus crystals to
a synchrotron at room temperature (for room temperature diffraction). I am
wondering if anybody has ever had any good experience for this kind of
shipping. Especially, it would be great if anybody has any good ideas other
than pre-mounting the crystals in quartz capillaries (I won't be driving from
Houston to Chicago though :D). I would also like to know more about the things
that I need to pay extra attention to, if I have to deal with capillaries. Any
suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
I'm now testing the more convenient MiTeGen MicroMounts. However, I am not sure whether the crystals can remain resting on the MicroMounts aperture during the course of a typical Fedex shipping (according to the MicroMounts instruction sheet, crystals should not be trapped in the aperture). It would be great if anybody would share your previous experience with regard to the MiTeGen stuff.
Another question about the MiTeGen mounting tools is that I always observe a
stong diffraction ring at about 5 A. Well, it is not exactly a ring; it's
actually two thick arches (pretty thick, roughly from 5.5 A to 4.8 A), one at
the top and the other at the bottom of the diffraction patterns (nothing on the
left-hand or right-hand side). Does anybody have any idea what this might be
(fiber?)?
thanks a lot for your help!
Junhua
---
Junhua Pan
Department of Biochemistry & Cell Biology
327 Keck Hall, Rice University
6100 Main Street MS-140
Houston, TX 77005
Phone: (713)348-3346
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
--
Jürgen Bosch
University of Washington
Dept. of Biochemistry, K-426
1705 NE Pacific Street
Seattle, WA 98195
Box 357742
Phone: +1-206-616-4510
FAX: +1-206-685-7002
