Australia's first automated high-throughput X-ray crystallography system

Monash University is partnering with research institutions on a $2.9 million project to deliver a robotic laboratory for high-throughput X-ray crystallography at the Australian Synchrotron in Clayton. The high-throughput X-ray crystallography facility will give Australian researchers national access to Australia’s first automated HTX system.

The project is backed by a Medical Research Future Fund National Critical Research Infrastructure grant. The facility will support faster invention, trials and commercialisation of medicines by Australian researchers.

High-throughput X-ray crystallography uses X-rays to map the 3D shape of disease-causing proteins. Researchers use those structures to see how a molecule binds to its target.

Professor Martin Scanlon, head of medicinal chemistry at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, said the technology would provide “incalculable ability” to boost capacity, save time and accelerate productivity.

In drug discovery, researchers design a compound to fit a specific pocket in a protein. Proteins can shift shape during testing, which changes the task.

“HTX allows us to rapidly capture those changes,” Professor Scanlon said. “It doesn’t instantly solve the puzzle, but it provides the real-time data we need to accelerate that iterative back-and-forth process.”

Australian Synchrotron in Clayton

Twenty-five years ago, researchers were flying to Chicago twice a year to collect only a fraction of the structural data this system will provide. The new platform places that capability in Clayton for national use.

Analysis of drug discovery projects that produced a clinical candidate showed 65% relied on structural information. Most of that information came from X-ray crystallography.

Professor Christopher Porter, director of the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, said the platform could cut months of laboratory work to a few days.

The automated system could screen about 1,000 compounds in three days without human intervention. That scale is beyond current manual data collection.

The facility will also add crystallographic fragment screening. That method tests small molecular fragments first, then combines them into a final drug candidate.

Professor Scanlon argued the platform should attract investment and help grow Australia’s biotechnology and clinical trials economy as more partners invest locally.

The project will run for five years. Partners include Monash University, ANSTO, the Australian Synchrotron, CSIRO, WEHI, the Australian National University, the University of Western Australia, the University of New South Wales, Griffith University, the University of Adelaide, La Trobe University and the University of Queensland.

The Medical Research Future Fund National Critical Research Infrastructure initiative provides $600 million over 10 years from 2024-25 to 2033-34. Monash expects the Clayton facility to help turn medical discoveries into clinical candidates faster.