Implementation of Temperature-Controlled Method of Protein Crystallization in Microgravity

Resumo

An experimental scientific equipment for implementing temperature-controlled protein crystallization in capillaries under microgravity has been developed, fabricated, and tested. This crystallization method, providing on-line separate control of crystal growth both in the stage of nucleation of crystals and during their further growth, requires small amounts of protein solution. The equipment has been tested on board of Foton-M4 spacecraft (growth of lysozyme protein crystals of high structural quality in microgravity) using a cyclogram developed in ground-based experiments. The results obtained have demonstrated efficiency and importance of the developed equipment and method for growing biomacromolecular crystals of high-structural quality.