Dear Cedric, We use a much easier test for mounting crystals at room temperature: just coat the crystal with paratone oil and mount your crystal in a standard cryoloop. The oil will slow down evaporation enough - no special tools required. You don't even need to remove all the liquid as you would do for flash-cooling the crystal in paratone. And a major advantage: you can use the same crystal to collect under cryo-conditions and directly compare the impact of cooling the crystal...
Cheers Filip Van Petegem -- Filip Van Petegem, PhD Assistant Professor The University of British Columbia Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 2350 Health Sciences Mall - Rm 2.356 Vancouver, V6T 1Z3 phone: +1 604 827 4267 email: filip.vanpete...@gmail.com http://crg.ubc.ca/VanPetegem/ On Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 6:27 AM, cedric bauvois <cbauv...@gmail.com> wrote: > Dear CCP4ers, > > in their paper entitled " Using cryoloops for X-ray data collection from > protein crystals at room temperature: A simple applicable method" ( *Journal > of Crystal Growth* <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00220248> > Volume 281, Issues > 2-4<http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=PublicationURL&_tockey=%23TOC%235302%232005%23997189997%23601824%23FLA%23&_cdi=5302&_pubType=J&view=c&_auth=y&_acct=C000026678&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=532047&md5=9a4e7b2fc158c6d2396925c79d995e3d>, > 1 August 2005, Pages 592-595.), the authors present a way to mount crystals > using "a cryoloop accompanied by a glass capillary cap" (see abstract > below). > Do you know if any commercial version of such system are now available ? > > Abstract: Although cryoloops are now routinely used for X-ray data > collection from protein crystals in cryocooling condition, it is still > necessary to collect X-ray diffraction data from protein crystals at room > temperature under such circumstances as to find resolution limit and/or to > avoid damage of protein crystals at cryogenic temperature (e.g. 100 K). > Here, we show that a cryoloop, which is accompanied by a glass capillary cap > to maintain humid environment of crystal in the cryoloop, can be used not > only to examine protein or non-protein crystals but also to collect X-ray > diffraction data for structural analysis from protein crystals at room > temperature. The size of cryoloop should be carefully chosen so that the > crystal does not move in the cryoloop. This crystal mounting method can be > time-saving compared to the traditional method to mount a crystal in a glass > capillary tube. > > Many thanks > > -- > Dr. Cedric Bauvois > Cristallographie des protéines > Institut de Recherches Microbiologiques JM Wiame -IRMW > Av E. Gryzon 1, 1070 Brussels (Belgium) > tél: +32 (0)2 5273634 > fax: +32 (0)2 5267273 >
