Crystallization: digging into the past to learn lessons for the future.

Crystals of biological macromolecules have been observed and grown for well over a century. More effort has been put into biological crystallization in the last few decades due to the importance of X-ray crystal structures, the advent of synchrotron radiation sources, improved computational speed, better software, and the availability of recombinant protein. Here we focus on two important areas of crystal growth: firstly, on techniques for stabilizing the protein sample, and secondly, on strategies and approaches for selecting the crystallization cocktails most suitable for different strategies.