5 ms·
Brute-forcing the problem with a variant library and high-throughput screening could easily end up being far more inefficient. At least with crystallography it
by natechols 6y ago
Brute-forcing the problem with a variant library and high-throughput screening could easily end up being far more inefficient. At least with crystallography it's easy to set up the experiment, whether or not it actually works.
- dekhn 6y agoYou can even buy robots that do grid searches for crystallography (IE, if you're desperate, can't find conditions to make a crystal, and you've exhausted your postdocs, the robot will be able to try more possibilities in shorter time). Unfortunately they don't work very well and end up being a real pain to clean.
- entee 6y ago“Easy” is rarely a word I’ve heard associated with crystallography. Hence cryo-em! Easier and faster sample prep.
- natechols 6y agoIn the very best case, it is indeed easy! I've seen the entire process take less than a month for a completely novel structure - those were extremely lucky cases of course, but my point is that it costs very little to set up some screens and see what happens. (Small globular proteins of course, not ribosomes or ion channels.)
- entee 6y agoNice! I always assumed unless there was a known crystal, you’d be in for pain. “Good and globular” is the way to go I guess.