Dear Andrea,
as others have suggested there are many ways to dehydrate crystals
by increasing the concentration of salt/precipitant or adding
glycerol/EG/PEG 200-400 to the solutions surrounding your crystals. I
have always found controlled dehydration using a specific device to be
much better. The most common are the FMS and the HC1, the great
advantage is that any changes that are induced by dehydration can been
observed immediately by diffraction and the whole process can be
thoroughly characterised. You never know if it is going to work but it
is always worth a try, good indications are relatively large solvent
content/solvent channels or that you have already observed variation in
unit cell parameters after cryocooling. In Europe the HC1 is available
at the ESRF (http://go.esrf.eu/HC1b - you can apply for rolling access
here,
http://www.esrf.fr/UsersAndScience/UserGuide/Applying/ProposalGuidelines/MXnon-BAGproposal),
Diamond, MAXLab and I think BESSY. I believe the FMS is available to
use at Proteros. Here are some links to papers describing the use of
these devices, good luck! Matt.
FMS - http://journals.iucr.org/j/issues/2000/05/00/he0257/index.html
HC1 - http://scripts.iucr.org/cgi-bin/paper?S0907444909037822
and http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1047847711000499
On 26/08/2011 22:53, Andrea L Edwards wrote:
Hi all,
What are the most successful methods you know of for dehydrating a crystal
prior to freezing it? I am trying to push the resolution of my crystals.
Thanks,
Andrea
--
Matthew Bowler
Structural Biology Group
European Synchrotron Radiation Facility
B.P. 220, 6 rue Jules Horowitz
F-38043 GRENOBLE CEDEX
FRANCE
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Tel: +33 (0) 4.76.88.29.28
Fax: +33 (0) 4.76.88.29.04
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