title: Cryocooling and radiation damage in macromolecular crystallography.
abstract: Advances in cryocrystallographic techniques for macromolecular crystallography have been intimately intertwined with efforts to reduce the deleterious effects of X-ray damage inflicted during the collection of diffraction data. A brief overview of cryomethods and their rationale is given. This is followed by a summary of our current limited understanding of radiation damage in cryocooled crystals, investigations aimed at minimizing its effects and finally some developments which actually utilize it both for phasing and to extend structural knowledge.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics, Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QU, England. elspeth@biop.ox.ac.uk
authors.forename: Elspeth F
authors.initials: EF
authors.lastname: Garman
authors.forename: Robin Leslie
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Owen
mesh_terms: D003451:Cryoprotective Agents / Q000737:chemistry; D003460:Crystallization; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray / Q000379:methods*; D005615:Freezing; D046911:Macromolecular Substances / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000528:radiation effects*; D011487:Protein Conformation / Q000528:radiation effects; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000528:radiation effects*
chemical_list: D003451:Cryoprotective Agents; D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D011506:Proteins