W0075
Efficient Protein Crystallization. Lawrence
DeLucas1, Lisa Nagy1, Terry Bray1, David
Hamrick2, Larry Cosenza2, Arnon Chait3,
Alexander Belgovskiy3, and Brad Stoops3,
1Center for Biophysical Sciences and Engineering, Univ. of Alabama at
Birmingham, AL 2Diversified Scientific, Inc., Birmingham, AL,
3ANALIZA, Inc., Bay Village, OH.
The high-throughput production of diffraction-quality crystals
remains a major obstacle in structural proteomics, with success rates rarely
exceeding 15% for soluble proteins. The Center for Biophysical Sciences and
Engineering, Diversified Scientific, Inc., and ANALIZA, Inc. present a unique
and powerful approach for rapidly and efficiently determining optimum protein
crystallization conditions. This involves the combination of three key
technologies: (1) automated nano-crystallization, (2) incomplete factorial
screening, and (3) a specifically designed neural net crystallization prediction
program. This approach demonstrates the most promise for optimizing protein
crystallization when combined with a thorough sampling of crystallization space.
This is accomplished by using an incomplete factorial screen and a uniquely
designed nano-crystallization system. Every crystallization trial outcome,
including failures, is used to train the neural network. The neural network
exhibits enhanced approximation, noise immunity, and classification properties.
The self-organizing and predictive nature of the neural network allows for
accurate prediction of previously untested crystallization conditions, even in
the presence of noise. If properly trained, the neural network can be used to
recognize important patterns of crystallization. This information allows the
neural net to predict non-sampled complete factorial conditions used for
optimization. Thus, it predicts the conditions that produce crystals from the
entire “crystallization space” of possible experimental conditions,
based upon results from a much smaller number of actual experiments performed.
Therefore, a virtual screen can be performed using all possible combinations of
components and variables. The top 50 scores for the predictive crystallization
conditions are then experimentally prepared to determine/verify optimum
crystallization conditions.