ABSTRACT

Macromolecular crystallography is one of the most powerful techniques in modern biology. It is the most reliable technique for elucidating the 3-dimensional structure of moderate to large biological molecules. Nowadays, once a macromolecule has been crystallised, well-established techniques usually permit the determination of its structure by X-ray crystallography. However, preparation of diffraction quality crystals is currently the key problem and the major bottleneck to structure determination. In the last decade a major effort has been and is continually being invested in both designing new and improved methodology for crystal growth and in studying the crystallization process. This review presents recent trends which are currently appllied to overcome the bottleneck of producing suitable crystals, and highlights some of the advances in experimental methods that have been made in the last decade to aid the crystallization of   biological macromolecules.