The Woodlands, TX — March 28, 2007. Rigaku Americas Corporation announced the introduction of the Rigaku FR-E+ SuperBright™, an ultra-bright microfocus rotating anode X-ray source for structural biology. With brightness exceeding some second-generation synchrotron beamlines, the FR-E+ SuperBright is the most intense home laboratory X-ray source available today for macromolecular crystallography. The instrument will be featured at the upcoming Annual Spring Meeting of the British Crystallographic Association (April 17-19, 2007) in Canterbury, England.

An evolution of the proven industry standard FR-E SuperBright X-ray source, the synchrotron-class FR-E+ SuperBright produces unrivalled intensities of 1.6x10¹¹ X-rays/mm²/sec, twice the flux of the closest competitive instrument. This dramatic increase in performance is beneficial for all aspects of in-house crystallographic research, from exceptional data quality for very small and poor quality crystals to an overall enhancement of research productivity. With the FR-E+ SuperBright, most challenging projects can be performed in the home laboratory: screen crystals where no diffraction was seen on a standard system, collect full data sets on samples where only low resolution reflections would normally be observed, and solve previously intractable structures.

In addition to having the brightest X-ray beam, the FR-E+ SuperBright features a true 70 μm x 70 μm focal spot, the smallest available in a rotating anode design. This allows the FR-E+ SuperBright to deliver a small and intense beam that is ideally suited to the tiny crystals typically encountered in current structural biology research. For high-throughput phasing applications, the system is uniquely available in several dual wavelength configurations, including a Cu/Cr configuration.

Rigaku is the leading provider of home laboratory X-ray sources for macromolecular crystallography. A statistical analysis of X-ray crystal structures submitted to the Protein Data Bank (PDB)¹ showed that structures solved with Rigaku home laboratory X-ray generators comprised 17% of all submitted structures for 2005, the latest year of complete data. Of structures solved with home lab sources that year, 89% were done using Rigaku equipment. The data conclusively demonstrate that Rigaku structural biology customers are collectively the most productive, far exceeding the nearest competitor in the home lab market.

¹ H.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).

Rigaku—Leading With Innovation

Since its inception in Japan in 1951, Rigaku has been at the forefront of analytical and industrial instrumentation technology. Rigaku and its subsidiaries form a global group focused on life sciences and general purpose analytical instrumentation. With hundreds of major innovations to their credit, Rigaku companies are world leaders in the fields of small molecule and protein crystallography, X-ray spectrometry and diffraction, X-ray optics, as well as semiconductor metrology. Rigaku employs over 1,100 people in the manufacture and support of its analytical equipment. Its products are in use in more than 70 countries—supporting research, development, and quality assurance activities. Throughout the world, Rigaku continuously promotes partnerships, dialog, and innovation within the global scientific and industrial community.

For further information, contact:

Joseph D. Ferrara, Ph.D.
SVP Structural Science and CSO
Rigaku • tel: 281-362-2300 • eMail: joseph.ferrara@rigaku.com