W0107

Imaging Crystallization Experiments in Different Crystallization Plates: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Adams, J.A., Newman, J.M., RoboDesign International, 5920 Pasteur Ct., Carlsbad CA, 92008.

The interest in automating crystallization has led to an explosion of new plates, all specifically designed for crystallization experiments. Most of these new plates are 96 well sitting drop plates in the standard microtiter (SBS) footprint. We have developed a commercially available imaging system that can image these plates, along with the more traditional hanging drop experiments in 24 well Linbro plates. The high density sitting drop plates have been touted as easing the problem of automating crystallization, as these plates are conveniently set up with standard liquid handling robots. However, it is clear that the plates need also to be examined to find the result of the crystallization trials. We present a comparison of images from different plates with varying drop sizes, and draw some conclusion as to the relative ease of extracting information from automatically collected images of crystallization experiments set up in different ways.