Nathan D. Wright

Papers

Total Citations

123

H-Index

About

Nathan D. Wright is a structural biologist whose work has significantly advanced high-throughput X-ray crystallography, particularly for drug discovery. His primary research focuses on developing innovative methods for macromolecular crystallography, with a key contribution being the introduction of acoustic droplet ejection for crystal soaking. This technique, detailed in his highly cited 2017 paper (119 citations), allows for the gentle, fast, and effective delivery of ligands to protein crystals, dramatically streamlining the preparation of samples for fragment-based screening. By addressing the critical bottleneck in sample preparation—where the speed of modern beamlines and detectors had outpaced manual methods—Wright’s work enables researchers to perform hundreds of soaking experiments in minutes with minimal crystal damage. This innovation has been instrumental in accelerating structure-guided drug design, making high-throughput crystallography more accessible and efficient. His contributions bridge the gap between cutting-edge synchrotron capabilities and practical laboratory workflows, cementing his role as a key figure in the evolution of modern structural biology and its application to pharmaceutical development.