Macromolecular cryocrystallography--methods for cooling and mounting protein crystals at cryogenic temperatures.

Cryocrystallography is routinely used in macromolecular crystallography laboratories. The main advantage of X-ray diffraction data collection near 100K is that crystals display much less radiation damage than seen at room temperature. Techniques and tools are described to facilitate cryoprotecting and flash-cooling crystals for data collection.