Toward a comparative study of protein crystallization in microfluidic chambers using vapor diffusion and batch techniques

Using microfluidics for protein crystallization gives numerous advantages compared with classical techniques, as much reduced protein consumption, improved control accuracy and high parallelism. We propose here novel systems for the screening of protein crystallization conditions using microfluidic devices. Lysozyme was used as protein model for crystallization trials and sodium chloride as precipitating agent. Single crystals of lysozyme, large enough for X-ray diffraction studies, were rapidly formed into the 20 nl chambers of the microfluidic devices. A systematic and comparative study is now under development to better understand how to control the speed and efficiency of crystallization as well as the size of the crystals for both vapor diffusion and batch techniques. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.