Bainbridge Island, WA, October 21, 2008 – deCODE biostructures, Inc. and Emerald BioSystems, Inc. have announced the publication of a manuscript describing the novel Microcapillary Protein Crystallization System (MPCSTM) and associated CrystalCards™ for 3D protein structure determination from nanovolume samples. This technology decreases the cost of gene-to-structure research at its most critical process, protein crystallization. Protein crystals are required for determining 3D structures of protein molecules and their bound ligands to improve the understanding of biological function at the atomic level and to accelerate the drug discovery process. The MPCS utilizes CrystalCardsTM, plastic microfluidic devices designed to prepare and store approximately 800 individual nanovolume crystallization experiments that produce Diffraction-Ready™ protein crystals. The peel-apart nature of the CrystalCards allows the researcher to remove crystals from the microfluidic device for X-ray diffraction data collection using standard laboratory equipment and techniques. The CrystalCards are also sufficiently X-ray transmissive to allow in situ X-ray diffraction data collection from crystals held in devices placed directly within the X-ray beam.