X-ray crystallography is a strong method for studying biomolecules’ 3D structure. Data gathering technology for synchrotron radiation have improved, making this approach even more effective and efficient. The crystal is exposed to an intense stream of X-rays in a new technology for getting high-resolution structural information. The protein crystals deflect these X-rays, resulting in dispersed beams and a diffraction pattern. The intensities and placements of the spots in the diffraction data allow for the creation of electron density maps, which are utilized to identify the structure of the protein as well as any bound ligands and solvent molecules. Chemical bond lengths and angles may be determined with angstrom precision and tenths of a degree, respectively, using this data.
We can validate the location of a molecule’s contact with a protein, as well as how the chemical and protein are conformationally modified as a result of this interaction, with this information.
Our labs and offices are directly at Germany’s largest accelerator DESY in Hamburg. CrystalsFirst has regular access to the high-end synchrotron facility for data collection and can provide services for data collection. The unmatched hands-on expertise of our team encompasses experience of data collection at different synchrotron facilities across Europe.
CrystalsFirst can also perform synchrotron measurements at BESSY (Berlin, Germany), SLS (Villigen, Switzerland), ALBA (Barcelona, Spain), MAX IV (Lund, Sweden) as well as ESRF (Grenoble, France).
We offer stand-alone service packages for high-quality manual structure refinements. In the fragment-based drug discovery, CrystalsFirst can analyze the data and propose binders for structure refinement. Selection criteria will be based on the nature and extent of the potential interaction network of ligand and binding site, the ligand structure and the nature of the binding site.
Our experience in refinements encompasses a wide range of protein families as well as non-covalent and covalent modalities.
We have complete licenses to state-of-the art software packages for macromolecular crystallography and structure determination — Phenix, CCP4, XDSAPP for macromolecular crystallography and structure determination. Fast and secure data transfer, administration, related to X-ray crystallography data is an integral part of our core capabilities.
