Microfluidic Technologies and Platforms for Protein Crystallography

Abstract

Protein crystallization and its three-dimensional structure analysis is indispensable for understanding the protein function in the body and life phenomenon. Three dimensional structure of protein also plays important role for drug discovery and it have been already used to design new drug. To determine the three dimensional protein structure, protein crystallization conditions: concentration of protein, kinds and concentration of precipitant, buffer, pH, temperature, and additives must be optimized. In addition, high-diffraction quality protein crystals are needed to determine the protein three-dimensional structure at high resolution. However, optimization of the protein crystallization condition and preparation of high quality protein crystals require the labor intensives and trial-and-error. Microfluidics can provide the solution for the problems of traditional protein crystallography. A lot of microfluidic based technologies and platforms have been developed to utilize their unique characteristics. In this chapter, microfluidic technologies and platforms for protein crystallography is summarized. In particular, the application of microfluidics for high-throughput protein crystallization condition screening, controlling of protein crystal growth, and on-chip X-ray diffraction experiment using microfluidic devices are overviewed.