The act of crystallizing a macromolecule remains a trial-and-error process that often requires long periods of time and a large supply of sample. Our goal, as described in this proposal, is to develop a new methodology for the crystallization of macromolecules where the salts and precipitants will be electrophoretically delivered into the macromolecule solution in a controlled and reproducible fashion. In parallel to the basic research, the results will be used to design and test a prototype protein crystal reaction chamber based on the proposed methodology for microgravity applications on the Shuttle, retrievable free flyers, and the Space Station. This project is directly applicable to all three areas in subtopic 15.01 in which biotechnology innovations are being sought. The proposed methodology and the resulting hardware system are expected to allow a better understanding of macromolecular crystallization processes as well as to provide a more rapid rational approach to the crystallization of macromolecules. The proposed hardware is expected to be especially useful in microgravity crystallization experiments where a remote initiation, monitoring, and control of the crystallization process will be provided.Commercial Applications:Commercial applications are mostly in the field of protein crystallography itself. In addition to the benefits that the technology and hardware will provide to commercial space processing, we anticipate selling units and services to schools, academic research groups, R&D laboratories of pharmaceutical companies, and other industrial laboratories worldwide when our technology proves to be superior to those currently in use. Supporting materials such as membranes, reagent solutions, control and monitoring units would also be sold. Additional applications of our methodology would be in other areas of biology in which solutions must initially be kept separate and later mixed in a controlled fashion (e.g., tissue /drug interaction, cell growth, cell differentiation and hormone delivery).
