title: Graphene-based microfluidics for serial crystallography.
abstract: Microfluidic strategies to enable the growth and subsequent serial crystallographic analysis of micro-crystals have the potential to facilitate both structural characterization and dynamic structural studies of protein targets that have been resistant to single-crystal strategies. However, adapting microfluidic crystallization platforms for micro-crystallography requires a dramatic decrease in the overall device thickness. We report a robust strategy for the straightforward incorporation of single-layer graphene into ultra-thin microfluidic devices. This architecture allows for a total material thickness of only ∼1 μm, facilitating on-chip X-ray diffraction analysis while creating a sample environment that is stable against significant water loss over several weeks. We demonstrate excellent signal-to-noise in our X-ray diffraction measurements using a 1.5 μs polychromatic X-ray exposure, and validate our approach via on-chip structure determination using hen egg white lysozyme (HEWL) as a model system. Although this work is focused on the use of graphene for protein crystallography, we anticipate that this technology should find utility in a wide range of both X-ray and other lab on a chip applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA. perrys@engin.umass.edu.
authors.forename: Shuo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sui
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA. perrys@engin.umass.edu.
authors.forename: Yuxi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA. perrys@engin.umass.edu.
authors.forename: Kristopher W
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Kolewe
authors.affiliation: BioCARS Center for Advanced Radiation Sources, The University of Chicago, Argonne, IL 60439, USA.
authors.forename: Vukica
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Srajer
authors.affiliation: BioCARS Center for Advanced Radiation Sources, The University of Chicago, Argonne, IL 60439, USA.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Henning
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA. perrys@engin.umass.edu.
authors.forename: Jessica D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Schiffman
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA. perrys@engin.umass.edu.
authors.forename: Christos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dimitrakopoulos
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA. perrys@engin.umass.edu.
authors.forename: Sarah L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Perry
mesh_terms: D003461:Crystallography / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004867:Equipment Design; D006108:Graphite / Q000737:chemistry*; D056656:Lab-On-A-Chip Devices; D044085:Microfluidics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D009113:Muramidase / Q000737:chemistry; D011487:Protein Conformation; D055550:Protein Stability; D013499:Surface Properties; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction / Q000295:instrumentation
chemical_list: D006108:Graphite; C421864:hen egg lysozyme; D009113:Muramidase