In This Issue

 A Word From Our President

It must be the beginning of the year since I just returned from the annual CCP4 Study Weekend in the UK.  For those of you who don/t know, CCP4 stands for "Collaborative Computing Project Number 4, in Protein Crystallography."  The software suite that has evolved and continues to evolve from this collaboration amongst macromolecular crystallographers is truly amazing.  The people who invest their time and energy in this project are doing a great service for the crystallographic community by providing not only a library of programs covering most of the computations required for macromolecular crystallography but also a forum for new and novel techniques.  I highly recommend attending the annual study weekend to anyone who is interested in crystallographic methodology.  This is the one time of year that I can pretend to still be a scientist and I always find the program to be top notch and informative.

Speaking of the UK, our European operation has moved into a new office outside of London and we now have room for an application lab.  From the accompanying photo you can see that the lab is up and running and ready for demonstrations.  This should be much more convenient for our customers in Europe as heightened security has made travel to the US more time consuming.

Visit us on the web at www.rigaku.com

The Rigaku Journal

Vol. 19 No. 2 
Vol. 20 No. 1
September 2003

High Throughput Crystallography on an In-house Source, using ACTOR by A.J. Sharff

X-ray Diffraction in Forensic Science by D.F. Rendle

Powder Diffraction of Modulated and Composite Structures by A.V. Mironov, A.M. Abakumov and E.V. Antipov

Characterization of Silicon Wafer Surfaces with SR-TXRF by P. Pianetta, A. Singh, K. Luening, S. Brennan, T. Homma, N. Kubo and M. Watanabe

Note from the Editorial Office

The past few months at Rigaku, Inc. have been very busy for both the X-ray Fluorescence and X-ray Diffraction departments. Not only have state-of-the- art instruments been introduced by both departments, but the two departments have been merged. The combination of the XRF and XRD departments has been eagerly received by all involved and is aimed at dominating their respective markets with combined leadership and talent.

Delrose Winter is the new Vice President of XRF and XRD Products, with John E. Martin continuing as Director of XRF Product Marketing and Tom McNulty joining Rigaku as Director of XRD Product Marketing. Richard Ortega, formerly a member of the XRD group, is now the Vice President of XRD International Product Development. Amy Partridge is the new Sales and Marketing Liaison for XRF and XRD Products. To standardize quotations and sales support company wide, all sales support will be administered by the Sales Department.

As Paul Swepston, CEO of Rigaku, Inc., stated: "The purpose of this reorganization is to gain efficiency through shared activities and to increase our market share for these two groups (XRF and XRD). We will be focusing on the new products in XRF and XRD in the last 5 months and now is the time to refocus our efforts and hit the market hard."

The new group has been working intensively to develop and introduce XRF and XRD products to meet the needs of the 21^st century. Combined with Rigaku's talent for superior instrumentation and passion for quality, two new products have been unveiled to meet the needs of scientists worldwide. The new Ultima III is the latest instrument aimed at the XRD market. The combination of 2q optics, SAXS, and in-plane measurement capabilities allows the Ultima III the versatility of performing routine powder sample analysis to thin-film material evaluations.

The new MiniPac is the latest in advanced technology, utilizing the world-renowned analytical capabilities of both the XRF ZSXMini and the XRD MiniFlex™. With the addition of a fully automated robotic arm and external sample loading area, XRF and XRD data collection has never been easier. The MiniPac's advanced software allows XRF data to be collected, transferred and combined with XRD data to produce enhanced elemental analysis.

For additional information or product inquiries, please contact Amy Partridge, Sales and Marketing Liaison for XRF and XRD Products at (281) 362-2300 x 113 or email her at info@rigaku.com.

Calendar of Events

• CCP4, University of Leeds, UK, January 4-5.
• Intl. Seminar on Crystallography, Pune, India, January 8-10
• Intl. Symp on Recent Trends in Macro Struct and Function, Univ. Of Madras, Chennai, India, January 19-23
• Lab Automation, San Jose, CA, February 1-5
• PPXRD (Pharmaceutical Powder X-ray Diffraction Symposium), Hilton Head Island, SC, February 23-25
• PITTCON, Chicago, IL, March 7-12
• Gemeinsame Jahrestagung DGK & DGKK, Jena, Germany, March 15-19
• ACS (American Chemical Society), Anaheim, CA, March 29-31

All conferences Rigaku will be attending in 2004.

The Screening HomeLab may be configured with either the sensitive Saturn 92 CCD detector or a the popular R-AXIS IV++ imaging plate detector and an X-stream™ 2000 low temperature system. This system provides the same flux as a rotating anode* without the accompanying routine maintenance and alignment issues.

The Screening HomeLab is ideal for screening samples before synchrotron trips. The low-maintenance generator maximizes your up-time, minimizes your cost of ownership, and increases your productivity.

*compared to an RUH3R generator with Yale total reflection mirrors.

>>> Click here for More information

XRF Application Note

The Rigaku ZSX Mapping capability contained in a standard XRF system offers a unique opportunity for analysts to study surface inclusions of various materials. Whether you are creating fused disks, pressed pellets or investigating surfaces of products, any imperfection or anomaly can now be observed and analyzed producing previously unattainable answers using a general purpose XRF unit. The purpose of the tests in this report was to determine inclusions within a piece of ceramic that possibly led to the failure of the form. These tests were performed using a 4 kW, Rigaku ZSX Primus 30-micron window, tube-below, wavelength dispersive X-ray spectrometer. 

>>> Click here for More information

Osmic introduces the new Blue² optic, which delivers up to twice the useful flux of the original Blue optics with the same resolution capabilities. Like Blue optics, the Blue² offers superb spectral purity, higher order suppression and adaptability to your system.

>>> Click here for More information

Rigaku News

We are pleased to welcome Professor Stan Cameron, Dalhousie University, who will be taking a sabbatical at Rigaku. This will be Stan's fourth sabbatical at Rigaku. Stan will be performing experimental quantum chemistry using the RAPID imaging plate system. 

Congratulations to Dr. Elspeth Garman of the University of Oxford, whose Rigaku RU-200 generator won our Generator Longevity Award. Myrtle rolled over her hour meter (99,999.9 hours) in late 2002 and is still going strong.

Training Sessions

• XRF: 
  • February 10-12, 2004
• XRD:
  • (MiniFlex) February 11-12, 2004
  • (Ultima and MultiFlex) April 6-8, 2004
• Macromolecular: 
  • March 24-26, 2004

X-ray crystallography is one of the best ways to see interactions between ligands and protein which leads to better understanding of binding parameters and site selectivity. Rigaku, Inc. is readily able to determine crystal structures of protein targets sent by clients. Scientists at Rigaku are able to grow protein crystals, collect crystal diffraction data with state-of-the-art cryocrystallography methods and equipment, determine phases with sulfur SAD and other methods, and refine atomic coordinates. Clients use the atomic model of their protein provided by Rigaku to visualize the protein structure and its active site in order to design and improve better leads or inhibitors for their drug discovery or other efforts. 

>>> Click here for More information

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