Protein crystal growth results from the United States Microgravity Laboratory-1 mission

Protein crystal growth experiments have been performed on fourteen, space shuttle missions between April 1985 and June 1992. These space shuttle missions have been used to grow crystals of a variety of proteins using vapour diffusion, liquid diffusion, and temperature induced crystallization techniques. The United States Microgravity Laboratory-1 mission (June 25-July 9, 1992) was a space lab mission dedicated to experiments involved in materials processing. New protein crystal growth hardware was developed to allow in-orbit examination of initial crystal growth results, the knowledge from which was used on subsequent days to prepare new crystal growth experiments. The hardware developed specifically for the USML-1 mission will be discussed along with preliminary experimental results.