Jennifer R. Wolfley

Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute

Papers

Total Citations

168

H-Index

About

Jennifer R. Wolfley is a structural biologist and crystallography researcher whose work has significantly advanced the field of macromolecular crystallization, particularly within the context of high-throughput structural genomics. Her research focuses on developing systematic, intelligent methods for growing protein crystals — a critical bottleneck in determining protein structures through single crystal X-ray diffraction. Wolfley's most influential contribution, "Macromolecular crystallization in a high throughput laboratory — the search phase" (2001), has garnered 75 citations and helped establish rigorous frameworks for screening crystallization conditions at scale. Complementing this, her work on intelligent decision support systems (51 citations) brought computational reasoning to bear on the complex problem of crystal growth, aiming to accelerate structural analysis of the hundreds of proteins produced annually by genomics initiatives. Her 2007 study on optimizing crystallization conditions through manipulation of drop volume ratios and temperature (42 citations) further refined these high-throughput approaches, offering practical and efficient tools for researchers moving from initial hits to publishable crystal structures. Across her body of work, Wolfley has helped transform protein crystallization from an art into a more reproducible, data-driven science — a lasting contribution to structural biology methodology.