Core
Facility Devoted to Crystallization of Proteins and Nucleic Acids,
Centre of Molecular Structure, IBT CAS
Jiří Pavlíček, Jan Stránský, Ľubica Škultétyová, Jan Dohnálek
The Centre of Molecular Structure in IBT CAS (BIOCEV, Vestec, Czech Republic) is the complex of scientific core facilities focused on Structural Biology. Among the others, it includes a core facility, devoted entirely to the crystallization of biomacromolecules and their complexes. Diffraction analysis of single crystals is one of the main approaches in structural biology and this facility is equipped with all instruments necessary for crystallization experiments. The equipment includes robots that automatically set up high-throughput crystallization experiments in plates, as well as with crystallization hotels, that can monitor and screen the crystallization process using several techniques. One of the latest improvements to this facility is the SONICC instrument (Formulatrix comp.). It is connected to the RI1000 crystallization hotel and enables screening of experiments using SHG (Second Harmonic Generation) and UV-TPEF (Ultraviolet Two-Photon Excited Fluorescence). This allows the detection of microcrystals and even nanocrystals, which is essential for various methodical approach
The Centre of Molecular Structure is supported by: MEYS CR (LM2023042); project Czech Infrastructure for Integrative Structural Biology for Human Health (CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_013/0001776) from the ERDF; UP CIISB (CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/18_046/0015974), ELIBIO (CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/15_003/0000447), and MOSBRI from EU Horizon 2020 (No. 101004806).es.