Microbatch can definitely sometimes help with sticky skins on crystals. We use the microbatch under oil technique with MRC 96 well plates, as they are SBS format and can be more easily imaged (also less messy).
An added benefit with microbatch is that the oil can *sometimes* serve as a cryoprotectant for cryo-crystallography. Sarah EJ Bowman PhD Associate Professor | Department of Biochemistry | Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences | University at Buffalo Director | National Crystallization Center | UB Hauptman Woodward Institute 700 Ellicott Street | Buffalo, NY 14203 From: CCP4 bulletin board <[email protected]> on behalf of "Mark J. van Raaij" <[email protected]> Reply-To: "Mark J. van Raaij" <[email protected]> Date: Wednesday, September 17, 2025 at 5:05 AM To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] Skin around crystal You don't often get email from [email protected]. Learn why this is important<https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification> that reminds me, for new trials you may want to try batch crystallisation under oil in Terazaki plates, or maybe microdialysis to avoid the liquid-air interface and thus skin formation Mark van Raaij Dpto de Estructura de Macromoleculas, lab B5B Centro Nacional de Biotecnologia - CSIC calle Darwin 3 E-28049 Madrid, Spain tel. +34 91 585 4616 (internal 432092) On 17 Sep 2025, at 11:00, Nukri Sanishvili <[email protected]> wrote: Hi Amit, I second every suggestion you've heard so far and would like to share a couple more. You don't say how big are the crystals - if it's feasible at all to mechanically separate them from the skin. If they are big, and the skin is on a harder side, sometimes just tapping on the skin will cause the crystals to dislodge. Ions ago, before there were array of tools available for every occasion, I used to stretch bits of plastic over a flame to create plastic "cat whiskers". You may also want to try using the current crystals for seeding. With seeding, the crystals will grow quicker, potentially before the skin forms. Good luck! Nukri On Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 5:58 AM amit gaur <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Hi everyone, I am facing a problem during crystal freezing. My crystals are surrounded by skin and not separating from skin during crystal mounting. It seems that crystals are embedded in the skin. Has anyone experienced a similar situation and handled this situation? Dr. Amit Gaur, Department of Biomedical Science, College of Medicine, Florida State University, 1115 W Call St, Tallahassee, FL,32304<https://www.google.com/maps/search/1115+W+Call+St,+Tallahassee,+FL,32304?entry=gmail&source=g> ________________________________ To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following link: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/WA-JISC.exe?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1 ________________________________ To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following link: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/WA-JISC.exe?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1 ________________________________ To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following link: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/WA-JISC.exe?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1 ######################################################################## To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following link: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/WA-JISC.exe?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1 This message was issued to members of www.jiscmail.ac.uk/CCP4BB, a mailing list hosted by www.jiscmail.ac.uk, terms & conditions are available at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/policyandsecurity/
