Kisselman Gera, Qiu Wei, Romanov Vladimir, Thompson Christine M, Lam Robert, Battaile Kevin P, Pai Emil F, Chirgadze Nickolay Y
Campbell Family Cancer Research Institute, Ontario Cancer Institute, Princess Margaret Hospital, University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario M5G 2C4, Canada.
Acta Crystallogr D Biol Crystallogr. 2011 Jun;67(Pt 6):533-9. doi: 10.1107/S0907444911011589. Epub 2011 May 12.
The X-CHIP (X-ray Crystallization High-throughput Integrated Platform) is a novel microchip that has been developed to combine multiple steps of the crystallographic pipeline from crystallization to diffraction data collection on a single device to streamline the entire process. The system has been designed for crystallization condition screening, visual crystal inspection, initial X-ray screening and data collection in a high-throughput fashion. X-ray diffraction data acquisition can be performed directly on-the-chip at room temperature using an in situ approach. The capabilities of the chip eliminate the necessity for manual crystal handling and cryoprotection of crystal samples, while allowing data collection from multiple crystals in the same drop. This technology would be especially beneficial for projects with large volumes of data, such as protein-complex studies and fragment-based screening. The platform employs hydrophilic and hydrophobic concentric ring surfaces on a miniature plate transparent to visible light and X-rays to create a well defined and stable microbatch crystallization environment. The results of crystallization and data-collection experiments demonstrate that high-quality well diffracting crystals can be grown and high-resolution diffraction data sets can be collected using this technology. Furthermore, the quality of a single-wavelength anomalous dispersion data set collected with the X-CHIP at room temperature was sufficient to generate interpretable electron-density maps. This technology is highly resource-efficient owing to the use of nanolitre-scale drop volumes. It does not require any modification for most in-house and synchrotron beamline systems and offers a promising opportunity for full automation of the X-ray structure-determination process.
X-CHIP（X射线结晶高通量集成平台）是一种新型微芯片，其开发目的是将结晶学流程中从结晶到衍射数据收集的多个步骤整合到单个设备上，以简化整个过程。该系统设计用于以高通量方式进行结晶条件筛选、晶体目视检查、初始X射线筛选和数据收集。使用原位方法可在室温下直接在芯片上进行X射线衍射数据采集。该芯片的功能消除了对晶体样品进行手动处理和冷冻保护的必要性，同时允许从同一液滴中的多个晶体收集数据。这项技术对于诸如蛋白质复合物研究和基于片段的筛选等大量数据的项目特别有益。该平台在对可见光和X射线透明的微型板上采用亲水和疏水同心环表面，以创建一个定义明确且稳定的微量分批结晶环境。结晶和数据收集实验结果表明，使用该技术可以生长出高质量的衍射晶体，并收集到高分辨率的衍射数据集。此外，在室温下用X-CHIP收集的单波长反常色散数据集的质量足以生成可解释的电子密度图。由于使用纳升规模的液滴体积，这项技术具有很高的资源利用效率。它不需要对大多数内部和同步加速器光束线系统进行任何修改，并为X射线结构测定过程的完全自动化提供了一个有希望的机会。
