Advances in Microfluidic Techniques for Nanoliter-Scale Protein Crystallization Screening

X-ray crystallography is the major approach in the determination of protein structure. To obtain high quality protein crystals that meet the diffraction requirements, researchers usually spend large amounts of reagents and samples for large-scale crystallization condition screening. Microfluidic technology can greatly reduce the consumption of protein samples in protein crystallization screening by manipulating ultramicro amounts of fluids. In this review, the recent progress in microfluidic protein crystallization screening methods based on the microbatch, vapor diffusion, free-interface diffusion and dialysis methods is introduced according to the difference in crystallization methods.