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| Newsletter Vol. 4, No. 4, Winter 2007 | ||||||
| In this issue | |||||||
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Bite the wax tadpole I found this story from a Google search and didn't really know if it was true but I imagined that this bit of miscommunication caused quite a stir in China. I asked a friend who used to be a marketing VP at Coke about the story and he had never heard of it. A colleague pointed me to the "true" story on www.snopes.com and, as usual, this is really a bit of urban legend. But what the heck, true or not, it illustrates the difficulty of communicating properly between diverse cultures. Besides, many politicians have made careers out of repeating urban legends to substantiate their philosophies and, hey, I'm not even running for office—so I don't feel bad about spreading the legend. At Rigaku we take the diversity of our own culture as well as our customers' cultures seriously and consider it our job to take the time to communicate properly. I like to point out to the Rigaku team that just speaking louder doesn't improve communication—unless they are speaking to this half-deaf, ex-rock and roll drummer. Paul N. Swepston
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Rigaku at Pittcon 2007 |
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Rigaku will be attending the following conferences in
the coming months:
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 Rigaku will be exhibiting at this year's
Pittcon Conference and Expo in Chicago Feb 26th-March 1st. Booth #4239.
Our
focus this year will be on benchtop X-ray solutions. Featured products will
include the MiniFlex™
II powder diffraction system, the Primini® wavelength dispersive
X-ray fluorescence system, SCXmini™ single crystal diffraction
system, and the Mini-Z
family of single element XRF analyzers. See you at the conference! |
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XRF at Pittcon 2007 | |||||||
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Can you picture yourself solving
your own small molecule crystal structures? Recent developments
in compact instrumentation and automation bring single crystal
X-ray diffraction to the benchtop. Structure determination is no
longer strictly the purview of specialists—it is finally
as routine as taking NMR or IR spectra.
Rigaku's new SCXmini benchtop small molecule X-ray crystallography system occupies about the same amount of lab space as an IR spectrometer, and is contained in its own radiation enclosure. Data acquisition, processing, structure solution and refinement are all performed automatically. The combination of an advanced CCD detector, a simplified goniometer, a sealed-tube X-ray source and an optional low-temperature system makes the SCXmini perfect for routine structure determination by researchers with some crystallographic training, and as a teaching tool. Rigaku recently installed the SCXmini in an industrial lab under the supervision of a chemist with some crystallographic training. Within days, the instrument was the talk of the department. Over a dozen scientists queued up to use the system. Members of the group collected data and solved ten structures before being trained on how to operate the instrument. |
The world is getting smaller—an
adage we have all heard and can easily see for ourselves. This
saying not only applies to the world as a whole but our own little
worlds, the ones we face everyday at work. Not too long ago
laboratory equipment, such as XRF systems, were large and imposing.
Today these units are getting smaller, more compact,
more focused. In keeping with modern world trends, Rigaku has
produced a new line of WDXRF systems which fit very nicely into your
changing world; XRF systems that specifically serve
your need to analyze just one element or a greater suite of elements.
Until now, benchtop XRF has typically been reserved for EDXRF, a reasonable analysis tool but with a number of shortcomings when compared to the larger WDXRF systems. Rigaku introduced the ZSXmini system about 5 years ago with great success. This powerful little WD system provided analysis from F - U, using both qualitative and quantitative methods. It also allowed vacuum and helium atmospheres to be used, which extended its capabilities from pellet and fused disks to loose powders and liquids. The time for evolution is here. At Pittcon 2007, Rigaku presents its newest series of XRF systems. The new Mini-Z systems are low-powered, benchtop units that permit analysts who need single-element determinations to obtain results only seen before on larger 3-4 kW systems. Each Mini-Z system is optimized for the element of your choice. They come standard with a 6-position sample changer that can be modified, if needed, to accommodate a single large sample. An example of this latter would be a modification of the sample delivery system allowing the analysis of Zr coatings on beverage cans—without destroying the can. Rigaku produces Zr, Si, Ni, Ti, and S analyzers, to name but a few, which service everything from coating thickness on solids to sulfur content in petrochemicals. The sulfur analyzer produces the lowest detection limit of any other similar system available today—0.26 ppm—and satisfies ASTM D2622 requirements. Our newest multi-element analyzer, the Primini, is the next generation of the successful ZSXmini II. With all the great features of the ZSXmini II, the Primini now lets the analyst exchange samples while running analysis, is lighter in weight if mobility is needed, and still employs the easiest and most intuitive ZSX software. Whether vacuum or helium is required, all sample types can be analyzed using this system. The main attractions for these WDXRF systems are cost and maintenance. Since all the Primini/Mini-Z units run off standard house current, they are easily powered. Their compact size allows placement anywhere in the laboratory or even in remote field sites. Some units require a vacuum pump while others do not. The Mini-Z systems contain a built in micro processor eliminating the need for an external computer system. Lastly, with specially designed optics, the systems produce results far superior than expected considering their size. For further information or even a demonstration, simply come by our booth (#4239) at Pittcon this year. Our freebies alone will make the trip worthwhile. | ||||||
Rigaku is pleased to announce the
following training sessions:
All classes are held at the Rigaku applications laboratory in The Woodlands, TX.
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As a leading supplier of X-ray crystallographic services to the
pharmaceutical and biotech industry, ActiveSight has facilitated the drug
discovery process for a wide variety of protein targets. We've developed
some of the most useful tools into high-quality reagents that can be ordered
from our website, such as:
Fragment-Based Screening Library I
ActiveSight's Fragment-Based Screening Library I consists of 384 compounds in four 96-well plates plus one 96-well plate of mixtures suitable for fragment-based screening. The fragments are supplied ready to dilute in a crystallization solution and then soak into crystals at millimolar concentrations. Fragments were selected to maximize their ability to bind proteins and with high efficiency. The average molecular weight of each fragment weight is around 200 g/mole. The small size of the fragments allows "room to grow" through chemical elaboration to generate novel leads with high potency. Ready-to-Crystallize™ ProteinsA successful structure-based drug discovery (SBDD) project relies on the development of large amounts of the target protein that will reproducibly produce diffraction-quality crystals. ActiveSight's high success rate with a wide variety of human drug targets has stemmed from our expertise in developing proteins that crystallize. We provide a wide range of targets with our Protein Portfolio services, and now offer many of them as Ready-to-Crystallize Proteins. These proteins come complete with instructions on how to crystallize, and information such as the typical resolution. Get to your project's endpoint sooner by skipping months of cloning, purifying, and crystallization screening. >>> Learn more about ActiveSight's products for drug discovery |
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| Software upgrades | |||||||
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In a recent publication in Acta Crystallographica D, Jochen Mueller-Dieckmann reports on the high-throughput protein crystallography system at EMBL in Hamburg, Germany. One module of the high-throughput crystallization facility consists of an integrated storage (Odyssey™) and imaging system (Minstrel™) from Rigaku which is kept at a constant temperature of 292±1 K. The storage system has a capacity for up to 10000 microtitre plates of any SBS format. Using two Minstrel IV boxes with two cameras each, four crystallization plates can be imaged in parallel, reducing the average imaging time per crystallization plate to 1 min. In-house users of the storage and imaging system can browse their images and associated data through the Rigaku Automation software package from their desktop computer. This provides access to all personal crystallization plates and all image types and enables the manual scoring of images. A separate program provides information on the crystallization conditions, details of construct design and the possibility of designing optimization screens. External users have remote access to their images and crystallization data via the internet. Reference: The open-access high-throughput facility at EMBL Hamburg, Jochen Mueller-Dieckmann, Acta Cryst. (2006). D62, 1446-1452. |
Rigaku has recently released two major new software upgrades.
d*TREK® 9.7d*TREK is the state-of-the-art data processing package from Rigaku. It is widely used in stand alone form and as the data processing back end for both StructureStudio and CrystalClear. The new features and performance enhancements in 9.7 include:
This new d*TREK version is used by both StructureStudio and CrystalClear. JDirector/StructureStudio™ 2.0JDirector adds ACTOR™ robot support to StructureStudio which is an integrated software platform for data collection and processing that runs on Linux® and Windows®. Version 2.0 is a major step forward over previous releases and includes:
This StructureStudio releases also includes updated Instrument Servers and support for new hardware options.
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| Rigaku Automation open house | |||||||
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Keith Crane, President and COO of Rigaku Automation, started the day with a brief introduction on the history of Rigaku and Rigaku Automation, followed by an overview of the entire CrystalMation™ platform presented by the Director of Business Development, Craig Sterling. After the presentations, attendees were divided into groups of eight and were given the opportunity to attend hands-on demonstrations of the core technologies in the CrystalMation platform: CrystalTrak™ software, the Phoenix™ RE, the Alchemist™ II, the Minstrel HT and the Desktop Minstrel. Each group was given the opportunity to work with each of the stations. After the hands-on portion concluded, attendees were taken to The Scripps Research Institute for a complete tour of the full CrystalMation system in operation at the Joint Center for Structural Genomics. We had our Rigaku Open House dinner at the Beach House restaurant in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, which is a great seafood restaurant, nestled on one of the most famous beaches in Southern California. Guests were treated to a beautiful sunset and an impromptu show by the local dolphins playing in the surf right off the patio! With great food and drinks on hand, the event was thoroughly enjoyed by all in attendance! We look forward to next year! >>> Click here for more information about Rigaku Automation products |
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What's new at www. Rigaku.com:
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A recent survey of the PDB1 has shown that Rigaku generators and detectors provide the highest level of productivity for structural biologists. We compiled results up to the year 2005, the last year for which deposits are essentially complete. In 2005, Rigaku users deposited 951 structures with data collected from Rigaku detectors and 972 structures from Rigaku generators. Of the total 5652 X-ray structure deposits for 2005, 4304 were from data collected at beamlines and 738 were from the APS. Trends for 2006 look similar but with an average time from submission to release of 155 days we won't have accurate statistics for 2006 for a few months.
As we looked at the data we found other reasons to be proud of ourselves as well. Since 1996 the increase of productivity share for Rigaku has been increasing steadily. In 1996, 38% of all home lab structures were collected on Rigaku detectors. As of 2005 this has nearly doubled to 68%. The increase in the depositions for Rigaku generators is not as dramatic since we already started with 78% productivity share in 1996. Nevertheless this metric shows an increase to 89% in 2005, see below.
>>> Click here for more information 1H.M.Berman, J.Westbrook, Z.Feng, G.Gilliland, T.N.Bhat, H.Weissig, I.N.Shindyalov, P.E.Bourne, The Protein Data Bank. Nucleic Acids Research, 28 pp. 235-242 (2000) | |||||||
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| 9009 New Trails Drive The Woodlands, Texas 77381-5209 U.S.A. e-mail: info@Rigaku.com Tel: (281) 362-2300 FAX: (281) 364-3628 | Unit B6, Chaucer Business Park Watery Lane, Kemsing Sevenoaks, Kent TN15 6QY, England e-mail: info@Rigaku.com Tel: [44] 1732 763 367 FAX: [44] 1732 763 757 | ||||||
Rigaku is a diverse company and we have a diverse
group of customers. We consider diversity to be one of our biggest
strengths but it also brings along with it a certain set of
challenges. Chief among those challenges is communication. A
marketing tale I recently ran across illustrates this well.
Over the past few years, a novel method for designing new leads in drug
discovery has been emerging: 
Coming
soon: 
The
Automation group of Rigaku hosted our second
annual Rigaku Automation Open House on February 8, 2007. We had an excellent
turnout this year, with 32 attendees from companies, universities, and core
labs from around the world.
