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In the end it comes to the question what added value above the current
approaches you could offer.
If you increase the success rate of crystallizability and good
diffraction data from a given protein by a factor of two or more it
becomes interesting - I am afraid this is not the case for microg
grown crystals ...

Jan


On Sun, May 9, 2010 at 8:26 PM, Jack Reynolds <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> --- On Sun, 5/9/10, Klaus Fütterer <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Dear Jack,
>>
>> I believe your venture would enter a mature market, and, if
>> you were to offer growing growing crystals in microgravity,
>> a market characterised by very high costs and (presumably)
>> very low margins.
>
> I wouldn't offer crystal growth, I would offer access to the data from x-ray diffraction of space-grown crystals. Is the data from significantly improved crystals not a valuable commodity?
>
> If the pharmaceutical industry (and other researchers, for that matter) could grow crystals in space, and extract critical data from the x-ray diffraction of these space-grown crystals (in space); AND
>
> if costs could be reduced by 30-50%; AND
>
> if the end-product is the data, not the crystals . . .
>
> do you still think (profit) margins would be nominal?
>
> Is your assessment of "very low margins" based on assumed "very high costs?"
>
> Jack
>



-- 
Jan Dohnalek, Ph.D
Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry
Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
Heyrovskeho nam. 2
16206 Praha 6
Czech Republic

Tel: +420 296 809 390
Fax: +420 296 809 410