The plate was developed at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (Cambridge, United Kingdom) in collaboration with Dr. Jan Löwe and colleagues. It is a result of many years of experience in successful robotic high-throughput crystallization and combines many of the features not earlier available to the crystallographer.

The new MRC Under Oil 96 Well Crystallization Plate is designed for microbatch crystallization using paraffin, silicon oil, or a mixture of the two. Following the initial experiment, evaporation of the drop through the oil allows for second crystallization stage, enabling further crystal growth as a consequence of concentration. This is different from other experiments in that the conditions are then extreme in nature and permit new conditions to arise.

The new MRC Under Oil 96 Well Crystallization Plate offers unique properties that make it ideal for both nanoliter crystallization screening and microliter optimization alike. Made from an optically superior polymer and with a new design of the wells, the plate allows easy crystal viewing and retrieval.

The advantages of the new MRC Under Oil 96 Well Crystallization Plate.

Easy Crystal Retrieval
Raised wide wells make the crystal mounting especially easy.

Easy Viewing
The wells are wide conical and have a polished surface on both sides important for perfect illumination. The micro numbering ensures that you will never get lost again (visible by microscope). The optically superior polymer is even UV transmissible and may be used to differentiate between salt and crystals.

Better Sealing
Wide partition walls between the wells give plenty of area for good sealing with tape for the initial experiments of microbatch. No central bending occurs in this very robust structure.

Recommended Volumes
Typical volumes validated for these plates are 20 µl of oil with a shot through sample delivery of 100 nanoliter to 4 microliter.

SBS Standard
The plates are designed to the 96 well SBS standard for all common holders and external numbering (A – H, 1 – 12) with corner location that make the plate easy to use in a robotic sampler. The plate can also be centrifuged for better results. The unique MRC Under Oil 96 well Crystallization plate offers a new way of microbatch crystallography. The 96 wells are optically perfect, designed to observe crystals under a microscope.

Unique Polymer
The proprietary polymer is optically perfect – ultra low binding and guaranteed to have central drop location in the well. There are no static effects and thus micro-droplet jumping is avoided.

MRC Under Oil Crystallization Plate

MRC Under Oil Crystallization Plate