This report presents an approach to automation of a protein
crystallography task called streak seeding.  The approach is based
on novel and unique custom-designed silicon microtools, which we
experimentally verified to produce results similar to the results
from traditionally used boar bristles.  The advantage to using
silicon is that it allows the employment of state-of-the-art
micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS) technology to produce
microtools of various shapes and sizes and thatit is rigid and can
be easily adopted as an accurately calibrated end-effector on a
microrobotic system.  A working prototype of an automatic streak
seeding system is presented, which has been successfully applied
for protein crystallization.