Crystallisation Services

Diamond provides a rich and unique ecosystem to the life science community, offering a wide range of opportunities all on one site. The Crystallisation Facility (CF), of which the Membrane Protein Lab (MPL) is an integral part, provides a key service for industrial clients, enabling them to undertake protein crystallisation and crystal harvesting for X-ray structural analysis.

The Membrane Protein Lab (MPL) is a leading research and training facility. Its focus is on supporting scientists interested in membrane protein biology, and in particular membrane protein structural biology. Our dedicated Industrial Liaison team and MPL scientists are on hand to provide guidance and expertise for industrial researchers in protein purification, sample characterisation and validation, pre-crystallisation screening, and crystallisation using lipidic cubic phase and vapour diffusion methods.

The CF and MPL are closely aligned to services offered by the Macromolecular Crystallography (MX) and Cryo-electron microscopy (eBIC) facilities at Diamond, providing a complete pipeline for structural biology including data collection and structural analysis. Uniquely co-located with the synchrotron and eBIC, the MPL enhances the integrated structural biology package available for industrial users.

The crystallisation services provided are ideal for start-up companies, negating the need for a large upfront investment of in-house equipment and expertise; for clients who have only just started to expand their research activities to membrane protein targets, and for busy teams from pharmaceutical or biotech companies who require additional resource and support.

Confidentiality and data security are key for all our industrial clients, and we apply stringent measures to ensure your data are stored and managed securely.

The CF and MPL add value across a number of research areas, including:

• Membrane protein purification and characterisation with a range of biophysical techniques

  

• Pre-crystallisation screening of membrane proteins– LCP-FRAP
• LCP in meso crystallisation of membrane proteins
• Vapour diffusion crystallisation of soluble and membrane proteins
• Crystal harvesting and preparation for X-ray diffraction experiments
• Diffraction data collection and structural analysis