Protein Crystallization Hits

This week I flew down to San Diego to attend the protein purification sessions at PepTalk . The part I was most interested in was an inaugural session, called 'Higher Throughput Protein Purification" (not going to contemplate the 'higher than what?' issue). There were contributions from the fields of automation, particularly challenging targets, sample management and process development.  Interestingly, there were several common threads that the presenters discussed:

• Importance of using multiple constructs in purification and crystallization
• The one-size-fits-all approach is failing more often now with targets becoming more challenging
• Protein purification requires scouting on the level of lysis, purification and scale-up.

Portion of my 2012 PepTalk program on 'higher throughput protein purification'.

Clearly, our game is becoming more difficult on the side of protein purification, requiring new techniques and methods for attacking complex targets. 

Cheers,

Peter