The MCSG Suite has been developed at the Midwest Center for Structural Genomics. As part of the Protein Structure Initiative, MCSG has been instrumental in the development of rapid, integrated and cost-effective methods for protein structure determination via X-ray crystallography.

Through extensive crystallization screening of more than 40,000 diverse proteins from both prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms, researchers at the MCSG have derived the most up-to-date set of crystallization conditions for initial screening. These non-redundant conditions constitute the broadest coverage of crystallization space of any commercially available screen and are supported by a decade of experimental analysis and validation.

The complete MCSG suite (384 conditions) comprises of 4 screens of 96 unique conditions that are available either as deep-well blocks (1.7 mL per well) or tubes (10 ml). Conditions 1-288 are organized in order of decreasing crystal productivity in screens MCSG-1, MCSG-2 and MCSG-3. Thus MCSG-1:A1 condition has yielded the greatest number of unique crystals for all targets screened with the suite predecessors. The conditions that comprise MCSG-4 have been rationally selected to systematically sample regions of crystallization space for proteins requiring additional screening.

The end result is the best, first-pass screening suite possible, with:

• Data-driven selection individual conditions ensuring conditions with high productivity potential were not accidentally excluded
• Superior organization
• The broadest coverage of crystallization space within a reasonable number of starting conditions for maximal efficiency while maintaining applicability for more unique and difficult targets.