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About

Kent Johansson is a structural biologist whose work has advanced the practical frontiers of protein crystallography. His research centers on developing and validating medium-throughput methodologies for macromolecular crystallization, bridging the gap between small-scale manual experiments and high-throughput industrial pipelines. Johansson’s most influential contribution, the 2002 paper “A medium-throughput crystallization approach” (80 citations), provided the first clear evidence that a two-step procedure—large-scale robotic screening followed by targeted manual or automated optimization—could reliably produce diffraction-quality crystals for structural genomics programs. This pragmatic framework demonstrated that automation need not sacrifice the nuanced judgment required for crystal optimization, making structural determination more accessible to academic laboratories. By quantifying the success rates of this hybrid approach, Johansson helped establish a reproducible workflow that has been widely adopted in structural biology consortia. His work remains a foundational reference for researchers designing crystallization strategies, proving that thoughtful integration of robotics with expert oversight can accelerate the determination of protein structures without compromising quality.