Once you have identified hits in a plate, you can optimize them by creating a new grid layer, random layer, or condition list layer from conditions existing in the hit. This allows you to determine which combination of the ingredients is optimal for crystallization.
Optimization is accomplished by selecting wells from the canvas and dragging them into a project, a folder within a project, or an experiment.
Suppose a drop in an experiment produces a hit. Maybe it is a small crystal that indicates that the well's condition has the potential for fully-crystallizing the protein in the drop. Perhaps crystallization would occur if the ingredients in the well solution had different concentrations or pH levels, or if the drop well volume and drop protein volume were changed.
Rock Maker makes it easy to vary these values in order to optimize the hit. Drag the well from the Canvas to a project or experiment on the Explorer, and tell Rock Maker to create a grid layer using the well's condition. You can then "grid around the condition" by varying the concentrations and pH levels along the grid in the new layer.
You can also optimize conditions by dragging them into a project or experiment and telling Rock Maker to create a random layer. Rock Maker will automatically organize the conditions' ingredients into ingredient groups. You can then assign probabilities to the groups and ingredients and configure the remaining experiment parameters.
When you come across sets of conditions that work well, you can also save them as a condition list layer. This is done by simply dragging one or more wells from the Canvas to a project and telling Rock Maker to create a condition list layer.
Note: If you drag the selected wells into an experiment, the new layer will be created within the experiment. If you drag the wells into a project or folder, Rock Maker will create a new experiment and then create the new layer within that experiment.