Nanoliter Scale High-Throughput Protein Crystallography Screening with the Echo® Liquid Handler

The Echo liquid handler enables protein crystal formation with sitting drop volumes as small as 50 nL. Nanoliter volumes of protein and crystallography reagents can be transferred into sitting drop wells of crystallography plates. Precise and accurate drop placement eliminates crosscontamination and ensures drop-on-drop placement for blending protein and crystallography solutions. Precise transfer of reagents ensures repeatable crystallization trials. With Dynamic Fluid AnalysisTM only a single fl uid class setting is needed to transfer all crystallography sparse matrix reagents—eliminating the need for multiple calibrations or repeated optimization of fl uid class settings. In addition to transferring sparse matrix reagents, the Echo liquid handler can also use Dynamic Fluid Analysis to transfer high concentrations of stock reagents on-the-fl y, which allows operators to create optimization grid screens without individually making all variations.