Can you help me crystallize my protein, nucleic acid, or complex?

We can try. Protein crystallization is an art. Protein purity is very important. Crystallization is much more likely if your protein is pure and homogeneous (bring an SDS-Page gel to show us), is stable in solution at concentrations of at least 10 mg/ml, does not aggregate in solution (check with DLS) and does not have long stretches of unstructured residues. Often ligand/inhibitor complexes are easier to crystallize and provide better data than protein itself.

Can I (my student, my postdoc) grow our own crystals, collect our own data, and solve our own structures?

Sure. We're happy to train researchers and give crystallography, structure solution, and modelling guidance.

EXCEPTION: Before using the x-ray generator and collecting diffraction data, students or researchers must have completed Radiation Safety Training.
Until this requirement is met, facility scientists will need to operate the instrument for you.

How much will this cost me?

It depends upon who does the work.

In all cases, you will need to pay for supplies and instrument time.
For work charged to a FRS account, instrument time is $8 per hour.

We do not charge for training students or researchers, consulting or giving advice.

For work performed by facility scientists, we assess a per-hour charge for time spent on your project. We can give you an estimate of the cost of a routine structure determination, but you need to be aware that macromolecular structure solution is often not routine.

For more information, e-mail or phone us.