Streak Seeding Automation Using Silicon Tools CUCS-015-06

This report presents an approach to automation of a protein crystallography task called streak seeding. The approach is based on novel and unique custom-designed silicon microtools, which we experimentally verified to produce results similar to the results from traditionally used boar bristles. The advantage to using silicon is that it allows the employment of state-of-the-art micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS) technology to produce microtools of various shapes and sizes and thatit is rigid and can be easily adopted as an accurately calibrated end-effector on a microrobotic system. A working prototype of an automatic streak seeding system is presented, which has been successfully applied for protein crystallization.