IceBear: Research Data Management
for Structural Biology

Crystal drop viewer

IceBear's drop viewer helps you view and score large numbers of images, see how your drops have changed over time, and mark crystals for onward processing.

Hands-free drop viewing

Measure and score your crystals

Intuitive movie-player controls let you navigate between drops or see an overview of the entire plate. Press Play to cycle automatically through all images in a given inspection until you see something interesting. You can configure the delay between images. Use the keyboard shortcuts to make you even more productive.

Measure and score

If your imagers provide scale information, you can measure your crystal by simply putting your mouse cursor at one end and reading off the distance at the other. Score the drop by clicking the score or typing its number shortcut; the next drop is shown automatically, unless you choose to turn that option off.

Imaging history

Animation of crystal growing

See how your drop looked at any point in the Imaging History panel. Use the movie controls to step backward and forward through time, or press Play and watch your crystal grow!

Scored images are highlighted with the relevant colour code. For each image, the calendar date and time is shown along with the time since the first imaging.

You can filter out visible or UV images, or see all of them.

It's easy to compare the current image with any other in the history. Just roll your mouse cursor over the image to swap it in and out.

Crystal drop information

With all the relevant information filled in, the Drop Info panel tells you everything about how your crystal was made.

Crystal selection

Found a nice crystal? Mark it directly onto the image using the Crystal Selection panel. You can attach files and notes to the crystal, fill in any unit cell or space group information that you have, and associate the crystal with a barcoded pin using the QuickFish feature.

Set it up to suit you

You can configure what appears on the drop info panel, as well as a minimum threshold for "next interesting drop" navigation. Choose whether you want a left- or right-handed display — handy if you're using a tablet.

Onward processing

Using QuickFish, you can record the fishing of individual crystals directly onto a pin for testing or storage. For longer crystal fishing sessions, including shipment assembly, take a look at IceBear's drag-and-drop crystal fishing page.

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