A review of the strategies for obtaining high-quality crystals utilizing nanotechnologies and microgravity.
Crystallization is a highly demanding and time-consuming task that causes a real bottle-neck in basic research. Great effort has been made to understand the factors and parameters that influence this process and to finely tune them to facilitate crystal growth. Different crystallization techniques have been proposed over the past decades, such as the classical vapor hanging drop method, its variant the sitting drop method, dialysis, cryo-temperature, gel, batch, and the innovative microgravity (space) techniques like free interface diffusion (FID) and counter-ion diffusion (CID). Here, we present a review of the strategies utilizing Langmuir-Blodgett (LB)-based nanotechnologies, and microgravity techniques for obtaining optimal high-quality crystals, as proven by molecular dynamics (MD) and bioinformatics approaches, namely using a clustering algorithm and protein alignment.
Nanoworld Institute Fondazione ELBA Nicolini, Pradalunga, Bergamo 24100, Italy ; Biophysics and Nanobiotechnology Laboratories, Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Genova, Genoa 16121-16167, Italy; European Synchrotron Radiation Facility.
Eugenia
E
Pechkova
Nanoworld Institute Fondazione EL.B.A Nicolini (FEN), Pradalunga, Largo Redaelli 7, Bergamo 24100, Italy; Biophysics and Nanobiotechnology Laboratories (BNL), Department of Experimental Medicine (DIMES), University of Genoa, Via Antonio Pastore 3, Genoa.
Nicola
N
Bragazzi
Nanoworld Institute Fondazione EL.B.A Nicolini (FEN), Pradalunga, Largo Redaelli 7, Bergamo 24100, Italy; Lomonosov Moscow State University, Biological Faculty, 119991 Moscow, Leninskie Gory, 1/19, Russia.
Marine
M
Bozdaganyan
Nanobiotechnology and Biophysics Laboratories (NBL), Department of Experimental Medicine (DIMES), University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy; Nanoworld Institute Fondazione EL.B.A Nicolini (FEN), Pradalunga, Bergamo, Italy.
Luca
L
Belmonte
Nanoworld Institute Fondazione ELBA Nicolini, Pradalunga, Bergamo 24100, Italy; Biophysics and Nanobiotechnology Laboratories, Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Genova, Genoa 16121-16167, Italy; European Synchrotron Radiation Facility.
Claudio
C
Nicolini
D016000:Cluster Analysis; D019295:Computational Biology; D003460:Crystallization; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000592:standards*; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D014893:Weightlessness
D011506:Proteins