The Challenge

On Earth, the process of macromolecular crystallization is affected by gravity; a force which causes sedimentation and convection due to a variety of sizes and molecular weights of molecules in the crystallization solution. This often results in a yield of crystals that are too small or disordered to be studied by X-ray diffraction.

The Solution

Researchers from Confocal Science Inc., used Diamond’s macromolecular crystallography data collection service to study samples that were literally out of this world. In the unique space environment, the limitations of gravity no longer apply and high quality crystals can be produced. Confocal Science Inc., an integrated service company for protein crystallography based in Japan, is working in collaboration with several Japanese research partners including the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to grow protein crystals in space on the International Space Station.

The Benefits

Alpha-amylase crystals grown in space (top) (Image courtesy JAXA) were compared to those grown on Earth and the resulting electron density maps are shown. Crystals grown in space tend to grow with higher quality and are sometimes larger compared with crystals growth on Earth. One benefit of this is that ultra-high resolution protein structures can be obtained by X-ray crystallography. Some of the proteins grown include: lipocalin-type prostaglandin D synthase (L-PGDS) and hematopoietic prostaglandin D synthase (H-PGDS).