| ABSTRACT: |
Many events orchestrate the life of a cell, including a multitude of specific chemical transformations, formation of organelles, movement of materials through specific trafficking, and more. To fully comprehend the relationships existing among the biological molecules responsible of such mechanisms, a large set of biophysical and biochemical techniques are used to complement data obtained from cell biology. With the increasing number of synchrotron facilities built worldwide, X-ray crystallography is becoming a highly popular approach that allows the study of biological samples at the atomic level.
In this presentation, I will attempt to introduce my views on protein X-ray crystallography and its future, based on a personal experience while dealing with challenging samples. Concrete examples will be highlighted in which a strong need of automation would have assisted a more efficient approach, either during sample manipulation, data acquisition, or structure phasing.
Inspired from such data, questions are emerging on how to progress toward a fully automated structural biology pipeline, already partly in place at the Structural Biology Research Center. |
