Cryocooling and radiation damage in macromolecular crystallography

Advances in cryocrystallographic techniques for macromolecular crystallography have been intimately intertwined with efforts to reduce the deleterious effects of X-ray damage inflicted during the collection of diffraction data. A brief overview of cryomethods and their rationale is given. This is followed by a summary of our current limited understanding of radiation damage in cryocooled crystals, investigations aimed at minimizing its effects and finally some developments which actually utilize it both for phasing and to extend structural knowledge.