High Density Protein Crystal Growth
HDPCG (High Density Protein Crystal Growth) is intended to demonstrate the scientific and commercial value of protein crystallization on a long-duration microgravity mission. HDPCG consists of multiple trays that house vapor diffusion and liquid liquid diffusion experiments inside a MERLIN unit which can be preconditioned to a wide range of set points.
With our hardware multiple trays can be housed in a single incubator unit. This allows for simultaneous experiments and the cost of flying to be divided across multiple PIs or across multiple experiments. The assemblies are Dragon, Cygnus, and ISS-EXPRESS certified. Hardware is available to complete ground testing before flight, ensuring the best outcome of the experiment.
Vapor Diffusion
- Up to 360 Vapor Diffusion Experiments per Assembly.
- Each block has a linkage system that connects the individual Growth Cell Assemblies for grouped activation/deactivation. Growth Cell Assemblies provide 3 levels of containment. This supports up to Level 2 Tox Samples.
- Trays are launched cooled or frozen in the deactivated state and activated on orbit.
Liquid Diffusion
- Up to 1120 Liquid Diffusion Experiments per Assembly.
- Capillary is sealed on one end, and solution loaded in the other. This Capillary method allows for direct X-Ray data collection without needing to remove and perserve indicidual crystals.
- Capillaries will be loaded into cryo vials and launced at cooled or frozen temperatures. There is no crew interaction required when using the liquid diffusion design.
