About the MCF

The Macromolecular Crystallography Facility at Indiana University, Bloomington welcomes Researchers interested in Structural Biology. Over the past several years there has been a rapid increase on our campus of research into biological structures, spanning from DNA (RNA) protein complexes, viral particles/capsids, and protein macromolecules. With this ever growing interest, the MCF provides a home source for high-throughtput crystallization screening of macromolecules and computational support for structure determination and refinement. In addition, we are a member institution in the Molecular Biology Consortium, which allows for easy, remote synchrotron access on beamline 4.2.2 at the Advanced Light Source (ALS), a part of Lawrence Berkeley National Labs in Berkeley, California. This facility was founded to facilitate and encourage research endeavors in structural biology and to provide a centralized resource for training and education in latest crystallographic and structural biology techniques. The Facility houses four new instruments that provide high-throughput robotic automated crystallization. Given the capacity of this systems, we envision that other research organizations in the region will also benefit from use of the MCF.

The automation instruments found within the MCF include: (1) the Phoenix HT / RE, a drop setting robot that distributes user samples and potential crystallantsin 96-3 format plates (up to 288 trials per plate). (2) the Gryphon LCP, another compact and fast drop setting robot for setting up Lipidic Cubic Phase plates and bicelle assays as well as traditional protein crystallography plates. (3) the Alchemist is designed to generate customized crystallization screens based on initial crystallization "hits" to yield diffraction quality crystals. (4) The Minstrel HT/UV coupled with two Gallery 700 incubators allows for user-free storage and imaging of all crystallization trails. Image data are stored on a server that can be accessed remotely via the CrystalTrak Web software.

The Macromolecular Crystallogrpahy Facility would not exist without the strong support of:

(1) Faculty and administrators of the Departments of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, Chemistry, and Biology as well as the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University.

(2) METACyt awarded funds for the Crystallization Automation Facility in early 2012 based on a proposal submitted by Prof. Charles Dann III with contributions and wide-ranging support from members of the IU-Bloomington faculty.

Last, but by no means least, we would like to thank the graduate students and postdoctoral associates who have already made a number of exciting discoveries using CAF instrumentation. We are confident that the the Macromolecular Crystallography Facility will continue to contribute to the educational experience and joy of discovery by present and future students and postdocs as well as encouraging new collaborative interactions between labs at IUB as well as surrounding academic institutions.

Charles E. Dann, Ph.D., Facility Director

Giovanni Gonzalez-Gutierrez, Ph.D., Facility Manager