Volume 8, Issue 12, Pages R243-R246 (December 2000) Automated Crystal Mounting and Data Collection for Protein Crystallography  Steven W Muchmore, Jeffrey Olson, Ronald Jones, Jeff Pan, Michael Blum, Jonathan Greer, Sean M Merrick, Peter Magdalinos, Vicki L Nienaber  Structure  Volume 8, Issue 12, Pages R243-R246 (December 2000) DOI: 10.1016/S0969-2126(00)00535-9

Figure 1 Schematic and Pictorial Description of the Robot Mounting Tool (a) Schematic drawing depicting the inside of the robot tool with the crystal holder and crystal sample attached. A male screw thread on the end of the crystal holder and a matching female thread in the robot tool provide the means of attachment. While attached to the robot tool, the crystal sample is maintained at cryogenic temperature by the cold metal wall and the residual volume of liquid nitrogen contained within the inner cavity of tool. The tool for manual mounting is similar to the robot tool but lacks the attachment flange. (b) Picture of the robot tool when attached to the robot and extended toward the sample-positioning head. The sample is in the robot tool Structure 2000 8, R243-R246DOI: (10.1016/S0969-2126(00)00535-9)

Figure 2 Overview of the Automount and Alignment System (a) Schematic representation of the system overview depicting key components. The X-ray crystallography apparatus consists of a 3-axis sample-positioning head, rotating spindle axis, CCD detector, and cold stream. A sample is depicted on the sample positioning head beneath the cold-stream nozzle. The multiaxis robot is prepared to retrieve a sample (blue) that is located at the base of the sample rack (pink). A CCD video camera (green) is mounted within the instrument base in order to provide an image of the mounted sample to the autoalignment algorithm. (b) Picture of the overall system. The robot tool is in the same orientation as shown in Figure 1B Structure 2000 8, R243-R246DOI: (10.1016/S0969-2126(00)00535-9)

Figure 3 Schematic and Pictorial Description of the Crystal Alignment Process (a) Cartoon showing the sample alignment coordinate system with the crystal centered at the fiducial mark (intersection of the X-ray propagation axis and the spindle axis of rotation), ensuring that it will be irradiated regardless of the rotation angle of the spindle. (b) Sample image from the optical CCD camera looking along the y axis as defined in panel A. The depicted image is back illuminated using a fiber optic area illuminator. The crystal is not yet centered. (c) The green dot depicts the location of the center of the crystal (imaged in [b]) as determined by the custom image analysis algorithm Structure 2000 8, R243-R246DOI: (10.1016/S0969-2126(00)00535-9)