SBIR Phase I: High-Throughput In-Situ Crystallography Screening System

This Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims at developing a compact high-throughput in-situ crystallography screening system that rapidly measures x-ray diffraction properties of crystals while inside the growth dish to monitor and optimize the growth condition. This project seems to automate this step with a novel system using a combination of micro-focus x-ray sources and a zone plate lens to directly measure the crystal's x-ray diffraction property. The project will fulfill the crucial in-situ structure screening step for fully automating the crystallography process by allowing growth conditions to be optimized without the need of operator attention and ensuring that only high-quality crystals are further selected for the time-consuming diffraction data acquisition step. The project will have considerable impact in both commercial/drug discovery markets as we as in basic research for further elucidation of protein biology.