The Use of a Magnetic Field and Magnetic Force as a Means to Improve the Quality of Protein Crystals - Molecules: Nucleation, Aggregation and Crystallization - page 195

11
The Use of a Magnetic Field
and Magnetic Force as a Means
to Improve the Quality
of Protein Crystals
Mitsuo Ataka*
Single protein crystals are indispensable in the determination of the three-
dimensional structure of proteins and other biological macromolecules by X-ray
crystallography. The quality of the crystals governs the resolution limit or accu-
racy of the atomic positions calculated. The purpose of this chapter is to describe
the idea of using magnetic fields to grow better quality protein crystals. The pos-
sibilities as well as limitations will be discussed.
Keywords: Magnetic field; magnetic force; magnetization force; crystals;
microgravity; sedimentation; convection.
Introduction
The need to obtain better quality protein crystals has long been recog-
nized. Microgravity experiments have been planned by a number of coun-
tries since the beginning of the 1980's, which aimed at using weightless
and convectionless environments available in space. This kind of experi-
ment requires a large amount of funding, effort, time and manpower.
Nevertheless, the investment has been widely justified by explaining that
accurate protein structure is essential to the basic understanding of life
*National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Kansai Center, Japan.
E-mail: [e-mail].