Protein-crystal detection with a compact multimodal multiphoton microscope

Cheng, Chung et al. develop a compact multimodal, multiphoton microscope for the detection of protein crystals with high sensitivity. This new tool facilitates the identification and detection of protein micro- and nano-crystal suspensions for serial diffraction data collection at X-ray free-electron lasers or high-intensity microfocus synchrotron radiation sources. There is an increasing demand for rapid, effective methods to identify and detect protein micro- and nano-crystal suspensions for serial diffraction data collection at X-ray free-electron lasers or high-intensity micro-focus synchrotron radiation sources. Here, we demonstrate a compact multimodal, multiphoton microscope, driven by a fiber-based ultrafast laser, enabling excitation wavelengths at 775 nm and 1300 nm for nonlinear optical imaging, which simultaneously records second-harmonic generation, third-harmonic generation and three-photon excited ultraviolet fluorescence to identify and detect protein crystals with high sensitivity. The instrument serves as a valuable and important tool supporting sample scoring and sample optimization in biomolecular crystallography, which we hope will increase the capabilities and productivity of serial diffraction data collection in the future.