Highways, Biways, and Detours in the Road to Crystallization

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Protein crystallization projects usually have two stages. The initial one involves screening parameters to find promising lead conditions. Useable crystals may already appear at this stage, but the most typical scenario is that a second round of experiments is required to optimize the potential leads. This lecture will present some of the major considerations in choosing particular strategies or “routes” for screening and optimization. However, since the pathway in a crystallization project often contains dead-ends, the protein crystallizer also needs to be equipped with a plan for dealing with the “detours”. When it seems that everything has failed, what are the options left to try?