Crystallography is the dominant technique for visualizing biological macromolecules at the atomic level, and the existence of high-quality crystals is a key requirement for successful crystallographic experiments. However, the growth of such crystals is often a major obstacle. Therefore, one of the major goals of my laboratory is to develop greater understanding of the crystallization process and to improve the methodology for elucidating the structure, function and dynamics of large biological molecules. Complementary techniques are also being developed for use when crystallization is not successful or to add additional information to the crystallographic structure. My research falls into four related areas: crystallization, solution scattering techniques, understanding the effect of the technique on the structure, and making use of the methodology developed to obtain new biological information.