In some cases, crystal quality was evaluated by X-ray diffraction. Regarding the crystal quality,
the preliminary analysis of the data sets collected with synchrotron radiation showed that the
crystals grown with the counter-diffusion technique shared excellent global indicators of X-ray
data quality with no obvious difference between crystals grown under reduced convection
conditions in space and crystals grown under convection free conditions on ground.
It is noticeable that due to unexpected logistic and safety problems, the data recorder could not
be used with the space GCF. Therefore, it is impossible to know if the temperature profile
during the mission and the one on the GCF on ground were similar enough to permit a
reasonable crystal quality comparison.
PUBLICATION(S)
Maes D, Decanniere K, Zegers I, et al. Protein crystallization under microgravity conditions:
What did we learn on TIM crystallization from the Soyuz missions. Microgravity Science and
Technology. 2007;XIX-5/6:90-94.
Garcia-Ruiz JM. Counter diffusion methods for macromolecular crystallization. Methods in
Enzymology. 2003;368:130-154. doi: 10.1016/S0076-6879(03)68008-0.
Garcia-Ruiz JM, Gonzalez Ramirez LA, Gavira JA, Otalora Munoz F. Granada Crystallization Box:
A new device for protein crystallization by counter-diffusion techniques. Acta Crystallographica
Section D: Biological Crystallography. September 26, 2002;58(10):1638-1642. doi:
10.1107/S0907444902014464.
This investigation is complete and all results are published.