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Science 26 September 1997:
Vol. 277. no. 5334, pp. 1975 - 1978
DOI: 10.1126/science.277.5334.1975
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Reports

Enhancement of Protein Crystal Nucleation by Critical Density Fluctuations

Pieter Rein ten Wolde, Daan Frenkel *

Numerical simulations of homogeneous crystal nucleation with a model for globular proteins with short-range attractive interactions showed that the presence of a metastable fluid-fluid critical point drastically changes the pathway for the formation of a crystal nucleus. Close to this critical point, the free-energy barrier for crystal nucleation is strongly reduced and hence, the crystal nucleation rate increases by many orders of magnitude. Because the location of the metastable critical point can be controlled by changing the composition of the solvent, the present work suggests a systematic approach to promote protein crystallization.

FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics, Kruislaan 407, 1098 SJ Amsterdam, Netherlands.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed.

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