Figure 3.

A pipeline for high-throughput ligand discovery with membrane protein crystals

After LCP crystallization in CrystalDirect plates, crystals can be directly accessed by removal of the top plastic seal on the plate (top row). Soaking solutions are introduced into the experiment by a pipetting robot, after which the plate is resealed and incubated for the necessary time (top row). After soaking, LCP crystals are auto-harvested with the CrystalDirect robot into pins and stored in UniPucks for shipment to the synchrotron (middle row, “Experiment”). Serial diffraction data are collected for each uniquely soaked bolus and merged after established protocols before structure refinement and ligand fitting (bottom row, “Results”). The automated data flow in the pipeline, shown by double-arrowed dashed lines, is maintained through the CRIMS, through which users can access, monitor, and analyze data via web interfaces.