PROTEIN CRYSTALLIZATION FACILITIES FOR MICROGRAVITY EXPERIMENTS

The first experiments demonstrating the enhancement of protein crystallization in microgravity were performed on the European Space Agency's first Spacelab mission in 1983 using the liquid/liquid interface diffusion technique and this experiment method will be continued on the European Retrievable Carrier. The current facility from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration employs a modified version of the "hanging drop" or the vapor diffusion technique. Protein crystal growth programs of NASA, ESA, and other national space programs now utilize a variety of instrumentation, and new methods are being developed to grow and study crystals of biological macromolecules in microgravity. This paper summarizes the present status of the NASA Vapor Diffusion Apparatus and ESA Protein Crystallization Facility.