About CEITEC

• Vision
• Goals
• Strategy
• Core Facilities
  • Nanolithography and Nanofabrication
  • Nanocharacterisation
  • Structural Analysis Laboratory
  • Nanobiotechnology and Biointeractions
  • Single Crystal X-ray Diffraction
  • High-field NMR Spectroscopy
  • Cryo-electron Microscopy and Tomography
  • Proteomics
  • Genomics
  • Molecular and Functional Imaging
• Management of the Centre
• Time Scales
• Financing
• Visualisation
• Project Partners
  • Masaryk University
  • Brno University of Technology
  • Mendel University in Brno
  • University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences Brno
  • Institute of Physics of Materials, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
  • Veterinary Research Institute

Single Crystal X-ray Diffraction

Head: Doc. RNDr. Jaromír Marek, Ph.D.

Main Activity

Diffraction experiments with single crystal samples focused on determining the 3-D structure of (macro)molecules down to atomic resolution. Range of applicable molecular mass: from 10² up to 10⁶, where the lower value covers molecules significant for nanotechnology, material science or pharmacology and upper limit covers biomacromolecules such nucleic acids, proteins and their complexes. Automated screening of crystallization conditions, optimisation of protein crystals growth.

Unique Features

The diffraction of X-rays in single crystal samples is the most important and – if an appropriate sample is available- also the fastest methodology currently available for the determination of atomic structures of molecules and/or macromolecules and their complexes. The Faculty of Science at Masaryk University has almost 20 years of experience with the diffraction laboratory focussed on small molecules. The new Core Facility is a coherent extension to new, macromolecular and biological studies of subjects with higher molecular masses. The bottleneck in diffraction techniques – time consuming preparation of protein crystals – will be overcome using a highly automated high throughput infrastructure for protein growth preparation, monitoring, and analysis. Centralised organisation of this instrumentation allows cost-effective use of resources and the exploitation of results even for untrained users.

Key Equipment (Core Facility fully operational from 2014)

• Macromolecular single crystal diffraction system
• Universal chemical and protein diffractometer and X-ray and optical protein scanner
• Automated crystallisation laboratory – liquid handling
• Automated crystallisation laboratory – sample storage and inspection