I had some luck once cutting the crystal out of skin with a razorblade. When the skin is extremely sticky, you tend to get your crystal wrapped up in it (which may be OK - you just get more background scatter) and carefully cutting skin on all four sides may be a better option.
Wang, Yeming (NIH/NIEHS) [F] wrote: > Dear everyone, > > I am working on crystallization of a protein/RNA complex recently. The > crystals were initially grown from BICINE(9.0) 0.1M, 1,4-Dioxane 2%(v/v) , > PEG 20,000 10%(w/v), at 10mg/ml. I noticed that there was a membrane formed > on the surface of the hanging droplets. This membrane seems very sticky. > Consequently, almost all of the crystals stick to this membrane and can't be > seperated for data collection. Sitting drops were also tried but crystals > stick to the bottom of the sitting well. Different buffer(Tris, CHES), > different PEG(PEG 8000, PEG3350, from 10%-1%) and different protein > concentration (10-3mg/ml) were also tried, but the sticky membrane was still > there. Does anyone have some experience solving this problem? Any suggestions > would be highly appreciated! > > Yeming > --------------------- > Yeming Wang, Ph.D. > Laboratory of Structural Biology: Macromolecular Structure Group > National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences > National Institute of Health > Mailing Address: Street Address: > NIEHS, MD F3-05 NIEHS, Building 101, Room F363 > P.O. BOX 12233 111 T.W. Alexander Drive > RTP, NC 27709 RTP, NC 27709 > Tel (o): 919-316-4634 > E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > -- Edwin Pozharski, PhD, Assistant Professor University of Maryland, Baltimore ---------------------------------------------- When the Way is forgotten duty and justice appear; Then knowledge and wisdom are born along with hypocrisy. When harmonious relationships dissolve then respect and devotion arise; When a nation falls to chaos then loyalty and patriotism are born. ------------------------------ / Lao Tse /
