Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2002 Dec;35(6):720-726.
doi: 10.1107/s0021889802016709.

An automated system to mount cryo-cooled protein crystals on a synchrotron beam line, using compact sample cassettes and a small-scale robot

Aina E Cohen  1 , Paul J Ellis  1 , Mitchell D Miller  1 , Ashley M Deacon  1 , R Paul Phizackerley  1
Affiliations

An automated system to mount cryo-cooled protein crystals on a synchrotron beam line, using compact sample cassettes and a small-scale robot

Aina E Cohen et al. J Appl Crystallogr. 2002 Dec.

Abstract

An automated system for mounting and dismounting pre-frozen crystals has been implemented at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL). It is based on a small industrial robot and compact cylindrical cassettes, each holding up to 96 crystals mounted on Hampton Research sample pins. For easy shipping and storage, the cassette fits inside several popular dry-shippers and long-term storage Dewars. A dispensing Dewar holds up to three cassettes in liquid nitrogen adjacent to the beam line goniometer. The robot uses a permanent magnet tool to extract samples from, and insert samples into a cassette, and a cryo-tong tool to transfer them to and from the beam line goniometer. The system is simple, with few moving parts, reliable in operation and convenient to use.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The Epson pick-and-place robot fitted with a pneumatic gripper actuator is shown. The four degrees of freedom are indicated by the arrows.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(a) Schematic of the gripper arm assembly mounted on the actuator. (b) Detail of the cryo-tong in the open position. (c) The cryo-tong holding the dumb-bell magnet tool.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The cylindrical cassette with cavities for 96 sample pins. The sectional view illustrates the details of construction.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Cutaway diagram of the dispensing Dewar. Shown within the Dewar is an internal support stand with three cassette mounting plates and a cradle to hold the dumb-bell magnet tool.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Unloading a sample cassette from a Taylor Wharton CP100 shipping Dewar using the manual transfer handle.
Figure 6
Figure 6
The sequence of operations for (a) mounting or (b) dismounting a sample on the goniometer.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Schematic representation of the robot as mounted at SSRL beamline 11-1. The cryo-cooler tank, transfer lines, and detector have been omitted for clarity. As in figure 4, the wall of the dispensing Dewar is cut-away to show the cassette locations.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Cryo-tong delivering sample to the goniometer on beamline 1–5.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Chang G, Roth CB. Science. 2001;293:1793–1800. - PubMed
    1. Corbett W, Hettel R, Akre R, Bellomo P, Boyce R, Cadapan L, Cassel RL, Choi B, Dell'Orco D, Elioff T, Evans I, Fuller R, Kurita N, Langton J, Leyh G, Limborg C, Macnair D, Martin D, Medvedko E, Ng C, Nosochkov Y, Olsen J, Ortega M, Pappas GC, Park S, Rarback H, Ringwall A, Rodriguez P, Safranek J, Schwarz H, Scott B, Sebek J, Smith S, Tanabe J, Terebilo A, Wermelskirchen C, Yotam R. Proceedings of the 2001 Particle Accelerator Conference, Chicago. New Jersey: IEEE; 2001. pp. 2674–2676.
    1. Cramer P, Bushnell DA, Fu JH, Gnatt AL, Maier-Davis B, Thompson NE, Burgess RR, Edwards AM, David PR, Kornberg RD. Science. 2000;288:640–649. - PubMed
    1. Deacon A, Brinen L, Kuhn P, McPhillips S, McPhillips T, Miller M, van den Bedem H, Wolf G, Zhong J, Zhang Z. Acta Cryst. 2002;A58(Supplement):C299.
    1. Earnest TN. Personal communication. 2001

LinkOut - more resources