1.   Growing protein crystals for X-ray analysis is an essential first step in creating new drugs.

2.   In the past it took years to determine the three-dimensional structure of a protein by examining protein crystals using X-rays.

3.   It has hired former General Motors engineers to design robots to automate the process of preparing and examining protein crystals.

4.   Other experiments will attempt to synthesize large protein crystals for the eventual fabrication of cancer-fighting drugs and to produce a new sugar substitute.

5.   Some of the work will focus on the production of metal alloys, semiconductors and molecular protein crystals from which antiviral medicines and other drugs could be fashioned.

6.   When Harvard University sophomore Kris Thiessen was in fifth grade, his peers were concentrating on sports and summer vacation while he experimented with protein crystals.

7.   A German group from the Max Planck Institute and Goethe University isolated the structure by making protein crystals of enzymes extracted from a soil bacterium.

8.   Before that, Astronaut Kathy Thornton, initiated experiments on growing protein crystals.

9.   The astronauts -- in weightlessness -- will also form protein crystals larger than those that can be formed on Earth.