presentation of the platform

  

       The goal of the platform 6 (PF6) is to provide research teams working in the field of macromolecular crystallography at and out side the Institut Pasteur with the expertise and technology required for automated crystallogenesis, computing and X ray diffraction measurements. Funding from the Genopole®Ile de France, the French Ministry of Research, the European Commission, GIS-IBISA and Institut Pasteur has allowed us to make significant investments in equipment during the period 2002-2010. This equipment provides complete automation for crystallogenesis, and X-ray facilities for crystal screening and data collection. As a service facility, each year more than 500 different protein samples were submitted to automated crystallization assays. Most of these samples (about 80%) originated from crystallographic research groups at Pasteur in the department of Structural Biology & Chemistry and the department of Virology. The remaining 20% originate from outside Pasteur (Institut Curie, CEA-Saclay and Université Paris 13).

       Automated system for crystallization service :

-    The Tecan workstation Gemini 150 for liquid handling.

-    The Synquad (CARTESIAN) nanodispenser to setup sitting drop crystallization screenings (100 or 200 nanoliters).

-    The MOSQUITO robot can be used for the sitting or hanging drops (varying from 100 to 1000nl).

-    The MATRIXMAKER robot can automatically design  the desired crystallization screens on different supports (50 ml tube, 15 ml tube, 96 deep-well block or 24 wells VDX plate).


      X-ray diffraction service :

-    A RIGAKU micromax 007 X-ray generator with standard rotating anode (wavelength 1.54 Å).
-    A system of multi-layer X-ray optics from OSMIC.
-    A mar345dtb image plate X-ray detector from MARESEARCH.
-    A Cryo-system from OXFORD INSTRUMENTS to collect diffraction data at liquid nitrogen temperature.


     With this system, users can answer several questions :
-    Are my crystals proteins or salts?
-    What is the unit cell or the space group of my crystal?
-    What is the best cryo-solution to freeze my crystal?

It is also possible to collect complete data-sets for native proteins crystals.