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Advancing Methods for Biomolecular Crystallography pp 47–57Cite as

Searching for Needles in Haystacks: Automation and the Task of Crystal Structure Determination

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Abstract

Chambers dictionary defines the expression look for a needle in a haystack as to undertake a hopeless search. Crystallographic investigations seem on many occasions to fit this definition closely. The use of synchrotron radiation sources with automated methods for beam delivery and sample changing has revolutionised the process of finding those crystals that have the properties required to elucidate a crystal structure.

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Acknowledgments

The work described in this paper represents the efforts of many staff members at the ESRF and the EMBL synchrotron groups over more than a decade. Without their countless hours of toil none of the results from the ESRF would have been possible.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, 6 rue Jules Horowitz, 38043, Grenoble, France

    Seán McSweeney

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  1. Seán McSweeney
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Correspondence to Seán McSweeney .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Department of Haematology, University of Cambridge, Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 0XY, United Kingdom

    Randy Read

  2. Fac.des Sciences et des Technologies, Physics Department, Université de Lorraine, Blvd. des Aiguillettes 1, Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy, 54506, France

    Alexandre G. Urzhumtsev

  3. , Institute of Mathematical Problems of Bi, Russian Academy of Sciences, Institutskaya st. 4, Pushchino, 142290, Russia

    Vladimir Y. Lunin

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McSweeney, S. (2013). Searching for Needles in Haystacks: Automation and the Task of Crystal Structure Determination. In: Read, R., Urzhumtsev, A., Lunin, V. (eds) Advancing Methods for Biomolecular Crystallography. NATO Science for Peace and Security Series A: Chemistry and Biology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6232-9_5

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