What is macromolecular crystallography?
Macromolecular crystallography is a biophysical technique used to understand biological molecules such as proteins, viruses, RNA and DNA to near atomic resolution. This high resolution helps scientist understand the mechanism by which these macromolecules carry out their functions in living cells and organisms.
Macromolecules can be generated from recombinant technology, synthetically developed or from a natural source, all of which require purification. Macromolecules can crystallize under the right conditions to form repeating units in a regular 3 dimensional lattice. Once crystals have been achieved, X rays can then be diffracted by the atoms in equivalent positions in the crystal lattice that results in sharp intense spots (called a diffraction pattern). The macromolecular structure can be determined by the analysis of the intensities and positions of the diffraction spots.