JAXA protein crystallization in space: ongoing improvements for growing high-quality crystals

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's `high-quality protein crystal growth' project is introduced. If crystallization conditions were carefully fixed in ground-based experiments, high-quality protein crystals grew in microgravity in many experiments on the International Space Station, especially when a highly homogeneous protein sample and a viscous crystallization solution were employed.

Numerical model of protein crystal growth in a diffusive field such as the microgravity environment

Numerical analysis of the concentration depletion zones in a transient state suggested that, in microgravity, protein crystals grow in a lower supersaturation and the impurity ratio decreases in the centre of the crystal.