X-ray crystallography without the crystals

Nature : X-ray crystallography works by firing x rays at identically arranged molecules in a crystal and measuring the resulting diffraction pattern. Getting the molecules to crystallize, however, can be difficult, and with some molecules it is impossible. Now, Makoto Fujita and Yasuhide Inokuma of the University of Tokyo and their colleagues have created metal-organic “scaffolds” that can hold molecules in a crystalline-like structure. When they tested their scaffolds using several molecules whose structures are already known via x-ray crystallography, they achieved identical results. They were also able to successfully image the molecule miyakosyne A, a chemical produced by sea sponges that is too sinewy to crystallize. The new technique will likely be very useful for imaging chemicals generally found in very small quantities. Next, Fujita and Inokuma say that they plan to create a structure that can hold bigger molecules, such as proteins.