TY  - JOUR
AU  - Spiliopoulou, Maria
AU  - Hatton, Caitlin
AU  - Kollewe, Martin
AU  - Leimkohl, Jan-Philipp
AU  - Schikora, Hendrik
AU  - Tellkamp, Friedjof
AU  - Mehrabi, Pedram
AU  - Schulz, Eike
TI  - Spitrobot-2 advances time-resolved cryo-trapping crystallography to under 25 ms
JO  - Communications chemistry
VL  - 8
IS  - 1
SN  - 2399-3669
CY  - [London]
PB  - Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature
M1  - PUBDB-2025-05617
SP  - 363
PY  - 2025
AB  - We previously introduced the spitrobot, a protein crystal plunging system that enables reaction quenching via cryo-trapping with a time resolution in the millisecond range. Here we present the next generation, spitrobot-2, as an integrated benchtop device. User-friendliness has been improved by semi-automatic sample exchange. Moreover, a fully automated shutter shields the liquid nitrogen from the humidified environment, improving sample integrity. Most importantly, the cryo-trapping delay time has been reduced to 23 ms, making spitrobot-2 twice as fast as the previous generation. This further expands the number of target systems that can be addressed by cryo-trapping time-resolved crystallography. Using 12 crystal structures of three independent model systems, we demonstrate successful cryo-trapping via observation of conformational changes and ligand binding within 25 ms. These improvements increase the convenient access to cryo-trapping, time-resolved X-ray crystallography empowering the MX community with efficient tools to advance research in structural biology.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
DO  - DOI:10.1038/s42004-025-01784-9
UR  - https://bib-pubdb1.desy.de/record/642768
ER  -