Towards time-resolved serial crystallography in a microfluidic device

Serial methods for crystallography have the potential to enable dynamic structural studies of protein targets that have been resistant to single-crystal strategies. The use of serial data-collection strategies can circumvent challenges associated with radiation damage and repeated reaction initiation. This work utilizes a microfluidic crystallization platform for the serial time-resolved Laue diffraction analysis of macroscopic crystals of photoactive yellow protein (PYP). Reaction initiation was achieved via pulsed laser illumination, and the resultant electron-density difference maps clearly depict the expected pR1/pRE46Q and pR2/pRCW states at 10μs and the pB1 intermediate at 1ms. The strategies presented here have tremendous potential for extension to chemical triggering methods for reaction initiation and for extension to dynamic, multivariable analyses.