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И.Ж. Безбах, И.Н. Радченко, Б.Г. Захаров, В.И. Стрелов
8
Installation for growing protein crystals
under terrestrial and space conditions with active
crystallization process control
© I.Zh. Bezbakh
1
, I.N. Radchenko
1
, B.G. Zakharov
2
, V.I. Strelov
2
1
Kaluga Branch of Bauman Moscow State Technical University, Kaluga, 248000, Russia
2
”Space Materials” Research Center of the Shubnikov Institute of Crystallography,
Russian Academy of Sciences, Kaluga, 248640, Russia
Crystallization of biomaterials is necessary in biology and medicine for determination of
spatial structures of organic molecules by crystallographic methods that further allows to
carry out the synthesis of new substances having the desired properties, and to solve
some fundamental problems of functioning live systems in general. One of the major fac-
tors determining success of this research is the processes of biocrystal growth imple-
mented not only during earth-based experiments, but also in space. A method of tempera-
ture controlling protein crystallization processes is much more technologically advanced
and more effective for growing highly perfect crystals in comparison with traditional
methods. In this method convection in the solution is excluded, and the influence of vibra-
tion on the crystallization process is virtually eliminated. This way in terrestrial condi-
tions the best possible approximation to the diffusion conditions of heat and mass trans-
fer in the protein solution is ensured, and in the space environment the diffusion mode is
achieved, i.e., conditions of protein macromolecule self-organization are provided during
their embedding into a crystal lattice. Thus the process of macromolecule crystallization
becomes controllable and reproducible. Based on the analysis performed it has been
concluded that the automated equipment with temperature controlling processes of nu-
cleation and crystallization of proteins, as the most effective for highly perfect protein
crystals, should be created. On the basis of developed simple in design and low-mass-
dimensional crystallization apparatus a series of experiments on the successful growth of
high-quality protein crystals of lysozyme has been carried out.
Keywords:
protein, crystal, growth, control, mathematical modeling
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