About Us
The Monash Macromolecular Crystallisation Platform (MMCP) is a platform dedicated to automating high-throughput crystallisation of biological macromolecules to help overcome the common bottleneck in crystallographic structure determination, namely producing crystals to yield unparalleled details of the 3D structures of biological macromolecules through diffraction.
Structures form the basis for understanding molecular functions and the rational design of therapeutics against target macromolecules. The platform is equipped to facilitate high-throughput drug discovery screening in conjunction with the Monash Fragment Platform.
Downstream from crystallisation, our platform can perform crystal harvesting and data collection at the Crystallography beam lines of the Australian Synchrotron for users.
Our platform also provides protein stability testing services, and works closely with the Proteomics & Metabolomics Platform, the Ramaciotti Centre for Cryo-Electron Microscopy and the X-ray platform to offer a broader range of protein characterisation techniques useful before crystallisation and other uses.
Scientific Director
Professor Max Cryle
Professor Max Cryle is an EMBL Australia Group leader in the Victorian Node, based in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Monash University and an associate investigator at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Advanced Molecular Imaging. His research interest is understanding the biosynthesis of important natural antibiotics and developing new antimicrobial agents.
Platform Manager
Dr Geoffrey Kong
Dr Geoffrey Kong has many years of experience as a crystallographer and is always pleased to discuss with researchers and other potential users about opportunities to work with the MMCP.