Does your system eliminate the need for cryoprotection?
Since the method removes water on the crystal before freezing, in some cases, we can go with lower concentration of cryoprotectant, like Paratone-N. But I usually use cryoprotectant for safety.
Also, how do you time the buffer-removal/freezing steps?
When I use my mouth as a "vacuum cleaner", I open the cold N2 flow just after sucking the pipe. Existence or removal of the liquid around the crystal in the loop can be seen by shine with reflected light of illumination for crystal centering.
With the semi-automatic equipment we have developed, timing between sucking and freezing can be set from tens to several hundreds milli- sec. I hope we can provide these equipment broadly, but making capillary at a low price is the major bottleneck.
By the way, I have put a "crystal gallery" , "structures solved by the method" and a table of some crystal parameters on the web page.
http://www.nusrc.nagoya-u.ac.jp/WatanabeLab/XtalMount/ Nobuhisa Watanabe === Synchrotron Radiation Research Center Department of Biotechnology and Biomaterial Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering Nagoya University Furo-cho Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 4648603 Japan Email: nobuh...@nagoya-u.jp Fax: +81-52-789-5286
