Nano-sized crystals grown in vivo

For the first time, structural biologists were successful in growing nano-sized crystals in living insect cells. To analyze protein structures these in vivo-grown crystals were used in combination with the recently established method of laser radiation of a femtosecond X-ray Laser to record diffraction data. Recently, this novel approach  of serial femtosecond X-ray cristalography for analysis of in vivo- grown nano-sized crystals was published in “Nature Methods“.    
In a joint initiative Professor Rolf Hilgenfeld of the University of Lübeck and member of the Cluster of Excellence “Inflammation at Interfaces“ and professor Christian Betzel of the University of Hamburg set up the young scientists group “Strukturelle Infektionsbiologie unter Anwendung neuartiger Strahlungsquellen (SIAS)” at the DESY institution. Dr. Lars Redecke of the University of Lübeck is the leader of the group which is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research and analyses the approach of novel source of radiation for the determination of protein structures.

To the press release of the University of Lübeck