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Calendar
of events
Rigaku will be attending the following conferences in
the coming months:
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Fragment-based
Lead Discovery Conference,
San Diego, CA, February
18-20
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New
York Structural Biology Group,
Manhattan, NY, February 29
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PITTCON
2008, New Orleans, LA,
March 2-6
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TMS
2008 (The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society), New
Orleans, LA, March 9-13
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APS
(American Physical Society), New Orleans, LA, March 10-14
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ELRIG
(European Laboratory Robotics Interest Group), Cambridge, UK,
April 1
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ACS
(American Chemical Society) Spring National Meeting, New
Orleans, LA, April 6-10
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BCA
(British Crystallographic Association) Spring Meeting, York, UK,
April 8-10
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AAAS-
SWARM (The American Association for the Advancement of
Science - Southwestern and Rocky Mountain Division),
Albuquerque, NM, April 9-12
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ICDD:
Practical X-ray Fluorescence,
Newtown Square, PA, April 28-March 2
Full listing of conferences
Rigaku will attend in 2008
Training Sessions
Rigaku is pleased to announce the
following training sessions in 2008: All
classes are held at Rigaku's applications laboratory in The Woodlands,
TX. 
>>>
Click here for more information
PITTCON
2008
Visit Rigaku at Booth 5321 at
PITTCON 2008 to learn
more about the world's most complete line of X-ray diffraction and
fluorescence instruments, including: benchtop and laboratory powder
diffractometers, high-resolution thin film diffractometers, X-ray
reflectometers, diffraction and topography tools for the semiconductor
industry, small angle scattering systems, rotating anode generators;
sequential and simultaneous X-ray spectrometers, TXRF systems, and wafer
analyzers.
Al Martin will be presenting
a poster titled "A breakthrough in TXRF."
ACA
preview
Angela Criswell will
present poster W0327 at the upcoming ACA
meeting in Knoxville. It is titled: Automated Sample Handling, Data Collection and Structure Solution with
ACTOR. Her co-authors are Amber Dowell, Robert Bolotovsky and
Jim Pflugrath.
Kris Tesh will present poster W0390 New Optics for Macromolecular
Crystallography. Co-authors are Angela Criswell, Licai
Jiang, Bret Simpson, Boris Verman, Chang Yang, and Joseph Ferrara.
Rigaku
Europe news
A collaborative team of scientists from Wake Forest University,
Asahi Kasei Pharma, Oregon State University and Rigaku Europe have reported the first
crystal structures of the enzyme α-glycerophosphate oxidase, a
soluble bacterial homolog to the membrane-associated mitochondrial
glycerol phosphate dehydrogenase which has been studied for over 70
years.
The GlpO structure reveals a multidomain flavoprotein with
two domains similar in fold to those of flavoprotein amino acid
oxidases and a novel fold in the C-terminal domain and may play a
role in membrane association for the GlpD homologs.
T. Colussi, D. Parsonage, W. Boles, T. Matsuoka,
T.C. Mallett,
P.A. Karplus and A. Claiborne: (2008) Biochemistry 47:965-977
[abstract]
Customer
testimonials
"Since the Alchemist
has arrived at Sareum Ltd the optimisation of initial hits obtained
from 96 well factorial screens has been more accurate and
comprehensive. This makes the process of obtaining good diffracting
crystals more reproducible and quicker".
—Marieke Lamers
Head of Protein Science
Sareum Ltd
"The SHINE
optic works perfectly. I measured several 5 micron thin
platelets which were impossible to run on the old monochromator.
Routine measurements can often be done with one minute per frame.
Really nice."
—Nils Trapp
Institut fuer Anorganische und Analytische Chemie
Universitaet Freiburg
Freiburg, Germany
What's
new?
What's new at
www.Rigaku.com:
01/28/2008 Job
postings updated
01/23/2008 Introducing
the Desktop
Minstrel UV
01/21/2008 Max-Planck
Institute of Biophysics chooses Rigaku X-ray crystallographic and
crystallization equipment
01/11/2008 CrystalClear
1.4.0 now available
01/10/2008 Hear
a customer talk about the SmartLab XRD system
01/03/2008 See the ACTOR
SM in action
11/05/2007 XRF
training session announced
Take our
survey to express your opinion about the Rigaku web site
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A word from our president:
Good to be back at work
What is it about the holiday period that makes one
long to get back to work? While it is good to deviate from the daily
routine and spend time with assorted family members, there is always
a certain satisfaction in getting back to my desk. I turn to
Maslow's hierarchy of human needs to try and understand this
phenomenon.
 Maslow's
hierarchy is a way of describing the motivations that drive a human.
At the bottom of the pyramid are the physiological needs. This
need-class includes food, and let's face it; we all overfill this
need during the holidays. Could the desire to go back to work be as
simple as not wanting to move into a larger waist size?
The rest of the hierarchy categories are safety,
love/belonging, self esteem, and finally self actualization. Self
actualization is described as a basic human instinct to make the
most of our abilities and do a good job. Our careers should satisfy
that need but why do we jump over the love/belonging need which is
left unfulfilled once we leave the family reunion and go back to
work?
In reviewing the photographs taken during the visit
by my in-laws I finally have the answer: the primal need for safety.
The accompanying photograph is of one of my sister-in-law's sweet
dogs performing one of its many "tricks" while visiting my
wife and me over the holidays. Just looking at that image again
raises the hair on the back of my neck. So at least for me, the
satisfaction of getting back to work isn't about self-actualization,
but simply about being in a place where I won't be bitten.
Paul N. Swepston
Max-Planck
Institute of Biophysics chooses Rigaku X-ray crystallographic and
crystallization equipment
Rigaku Americas Corporation is pleased to announce
that the Max-Planck Institute of Biophysics (Frankfurt, Germany) has
chosen to update their X-ray crystallography facility with the most
advanced Rigaku protein crystallography and automated
crystallization systems. The new equipment includes the world's
brightest X-ray source, the Rigaku FR-E+
SuperBright™ equipped with Osmic™
VariMax™ HF optic, the recently introduced Rigaku Saturn
944+ CCD detector, and the advanced Rigaku CrystalMation™
automated crystallization system.
Upgrading and expanding the X-ray crystallography
facility at the Max-Planck Institute of Biophysics was part of an
initiative by ESFRI-INSTRUCT (European Strategy Forum on Research
Infrastructures - Integrated Structural Biology Infrastructure) to
elevate the Max-Planck Institute of Biophysics to be one of the
seven core European centers for structural biology. Prof. Hartmut
Michel, winner of Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1988, was chosen to
lead the project. For the preparatory phase the BMBF (German
Ministry of Education and Research) has funded the effort, with the
majority of the funds being invested to improve the X-ray
crystallographic equipment at the institute.
Commenting on the new acquisition, Dr. Juergen
Koepke, Staff Scientist at the Max-Plank Institute of Biophysics,
said "First, we decided to replace two 19 years old Rigaku
RU200 X-ray sources with a new powerful, state of the art X-ray
generator with optics and a CCD detector. Second, a fully automatic
crystallization system was required that would be able to prepare 96
well crystallization plates with a pre-selected screen, store them
at a chosen temperature, and image the wells on a regular
basis."
Dr. Koepke continued, noting that "We chose a
complete Rigaku system including an FR-E+ [SuperBright] X-ray generator with the
latest VariMax-HF optic and a Saturn 944+ CCD detector to obtain
the highest available brilliance and detector performance. The only
worldwide available fully automatic crystallization system was the
CrystalMation system from Rigaku. So we decided to start with a
system that supports two Gallery
700 incubators, but with an Integration
Module prepared to accept at least one additional Rigaku Minstrel
HT/Gallery
700 combination. At the moment, we are investigating the
possibility of adding a new room to the building, dedicated to the
CrystalMation system, so as to be able to setup an Integration
Module long enough to serve six incubators.
"It has turned out, that a high flexibility in
temperature is required to optimize the crystallization conditions
of protein complexes, especially for membrane proteins. Therefore
the installed incubators will be set to such different temperatures,
that high X-ray quality macromolecular crystals can be obtained with
the new system. To avoid frequent trips to the synchrotron, the
in-house X-ray power will be high enough, with the new Rigaku FR-E+
[SuperBright] and an already available Rigaku MicroMax-007
HF X-ray generator, to do both the screening and full data
collection of crystals directly at our MPI facility. The preparation
phase for the core center will be finished at the end of 2008 or in
early 2009. After that initial phase the core center will provide
the facilities also to European access groups."
>>> Click here for more information
FBLD 2008
Conference: X-ray crystallography teams up with complementary
techniques to improve drug discovery timelines
Rigaku and ActiveSight®
are organizing the first ever
Fragment-based Lead Discovery Conference, FBLD 2008, taking place
February 18-20th in San Diego. FBLD is a technique whereby smaller
compounds and libraries are screened against drug targets, providing
information that results in the development of efficiently binding
lead compounds. The conference is a natural extension of the
Fragment screening workshops ActiveSight has organized for the past
several years, showcasing Rigaku's leading instrumentation for
high-throughput X-ray crystallography. ActiveSight and Rigaku are
actively involved in the FBLD/Drug Discovery community, bringing
together FBLD thought leaders to participate at the conference and
to give a perspective on its emerging role in creating high quality
lead compounds efficiently. Sessions will include Success Stories,
Chemical Biology in Drug Discovery, Methods & Emerging
Technologies, and Lessons Learned. ActiveSight's Chief Scientific
Officer, Vicki Nienaber, will give a presentation titled
"Pulling it all together: Faster Better Lead Discovery through
Integration of Technologies," covering one of ActiveSight's
FBLD discovery programs. The closing plenary presentation will be
given by Chris Lipinski, famous for creating the "Lipinski Rule
of 5" for drug compounds, who will provide perspectives on
current drug discovery paradigms.
A pre-conference FBLD Methods & Implementation Workshop
covering X-ray Crystallography, Surface Plasmon Resonance, NMR,
Calorimetry, Chemistry, and Library Design/Maintenance will be
covered. These technologies can all be used synergistically to
screen fragment libraries and provide information about binding to
the drug target. ActiveSight's John Badger will be discussing
Library Design, and Robin Rosenfeld will present methods for
Fragment screening using X-ray Crystallography. Separate
registration is required for the FBLD 2008 Workshop. The Exhibit
Hall will showcase new X-ray Crystallography and complementary
technologies for FBLD with presentations and demonstrations from 12
companies. A list of FBLD 2008 exhibitors and their FBLD 2008
activities can be found here. Rigaku
will be demonstrating the ACTOR™ robotic system for automated
crystal sample handling, along with the new MtGui software which
bridges the gap between data collection and processing and includes
full support for the new Rigaku RFID pins. In addition, researchers
will learn about advances in CrystalMation,
MIFit+, and the
Ultimate HomeLab™.
The conference will take place at the Paradise Point Resort in
San Diego, and will attract Drug Discovery researchers from around
the world.
>>> To
register, visit the FBLD 2008 web site
Introducing the Desktop
Minstrel™ UV
 Rigaku introduced the Desktop Minstrel
UV at the Advances in Protein
Crystallography conference last week in San Diego. The Desktop Minstrel UV
is the world's first fully automated UV imaging and protein crystal
monitoring system that uses UV fluorescence microscopy. It allows
experimenters to monitor crystal growth by distinguishing protein crystals
from non-protein crystals, such as salt. The Desktop Minstrel UV uses Clean
Light Technology™ and includes an ultraviolet microscope. Illumination is
provided with the wavelength matching the absorption of fluorescing amino
acids, such as tryptophan and the fluorescence is digitally recorded by a
camera with a CCD sensor.
The Desktop Minstrel UV is built upon the platform of Rigaku's state-of-art
imaging automation technology, the Desktop
Minstrel, which makes the
evaluation of a large number of crystallization experiments possible. The
Desktop Minstrel UV enables researchers to accurately harvest protein
crystals for data collection or design follow-up experiments.
>>> Click here for more information
Difficult analysis made
easy with the ZSX Primus
 Moving
beyond standard quality control of manufactured sheet metals are a number of
'specialized' analysis that are needed and presently are difficult and
awkward. One of these areas is wire analysis. Wires are manufactured in
different sizes and many go on for brass or bronze coating.
Manufacturing failures
due to inclusions in the wire are easily solved using the Micro
Analysis feature on the ZSX
Primus series systems. With the built in CCD camera it is easy
to 'snap' a picture of the failure/inclusion section then specify
your analysis spot with the point and click feature of Micro
Analysis. From there a Semi-quantitative analysis is preformed using
spot sizes down to 0.5 mm on the failure area and a 'clean' area—do a comparison of the results and you have the answer of where
along the production line your inclusion originated.
Coating analysis of
wires is another area that is typically difficult to perform. This
also is easily solved using the ZSX Primus series WDXRF systems. We
have analyzed a number of these wires by forming a 'raft'—sections
of wire cut to appropriate sizes and laid out side by side then
joined by an adhesive backing. The rafts are inserted into the XRF
system and analyzed for coating weight, elemental abundance (e.g.
mg/gm, gm/kg, etc). This analysis typically was done via acid
leaching of the coating followed by ICP analysis. XRF has shown
itself to be an economical, efficient and safer successor to this
older method.
>>> Click here
for more information
Rigaku
welcomes Stan Cameron
 Rigaku Americas is
proud to host T. Stanley Cameron of Dalhousie University for his
fifth sabbatical at RAC (formerly Rigaku/MSC and MSC). Stan started
life in New Jersey, moved to England during WWII, received a D. Phil
from Oxford in 1968 and began his teaching career in Northern
Ireland. In 1976, he joined the faculty at Dalhousie. Among Stan's
many honors is his role as science ambassador to India for Canada.
Stan is also a renowned teacher and was the recipient of the Alumni
Award for Teaching Excellence from Dal in 2001.
During his last
sabbatical in 2004 he collected several charge density sets which
were used to probe hydrogen bonding in non-conventional motifs. The
results of that work have been published in three articles cited
below. Stan takes advantage of the time away from teaching to work on the
really difficult crystallographic problems that come through his
lab. Thus far Stan has already tackled and solved some interesting
problems and is looking forward to several months of extensive data
collection at our application lab in the The Woodlands. The warm weather
(0-15°C) versus -20°C in Halifax is a also
a big draw for Stan.
We look forward to an
enjoyable five months with Stan and his wife Liz.
1. David Wolstenholme,
Manuel A.S. Aquino, T. Stanley Cameron, Joseph D. Ferrara, and
Katherine N. Robertson (2006) A topological analysis of the interion
interactions of tetraphenylphosphonium squarate. Can. J. Chem.
84, 804-811.
2. Deepak Chopra, T. S.
Cameron, Joseph D. Ferrara, Tayur N. Guru Row (2006) Pointers Toward
the Occurrence of C-F F-C Interaction: Experimental Charge Density
Analysis of
1-(4-Fluorophenyl)-3,6,6-trimethyl-2-phenyl-1,5,6,7-tetrahydro-4H-indo
l-4-one and
1-4(4-Fluorophenyl)-6-methoxy-2-2phenyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinoline.
J. Phys. Chem. A, 110, 10465-10477.
3. Parthapratim Munshi,
Elinor Cameron, Tayur N. Guru Row, Joseph D. Ferrara, and T. Stanley
Cameron (2007) Investigation of Inter-Ion Interactions in N,N,N',N'-Tetramethylethylenediammonium
Dithiocyanate via Experimental and Theoretical Charge Density
Studies, J. Phys. Chem. A, 111, 7888-7897.
2007
Customer satisfaction survey
 Beginning
in November, Rigaku Americas Corporation customers were asked to
participate in our semi-annual Customer Satisfaction Survey.
Delivered by both e-mail and "snail mail", the response was
almost 30% of our installed base worldwide. We wish to thank all of
those who took the time to help us help you.
Vastly different from a
marketing or installation survey, or other "nut and bolts"
questionnaires, this survey was designed to measure perceptions of
Rigaku products and service/support across a number of "quality
dimensions". Since quality is the extent to which products and
services meet the requirements of people who use them, this type of
measurement provides a fundamental view into the world of our
customers. Product quality dimensions included: aesthetics,
conformance, documentation, durability, features, performance,
quality, reliability, and serviceability. Service and support
quality dimensions spanned from access, communication, competence,
courtesy, and credibility to knowing the customer, reliability, and
responsiveness.
The use of perceptions,
which are soft and subjective indicators of quality rather than more
concrete and objective measures, has gained favor in the ranks of
business management because it allows business units to be directly
compared. In addition, the use of more objective indices are not
generally applicable in accessing the quality of services. Knowledge
of customer perceptions and attitudes about our organization's
business greatly enhance our opportunities to make better business
decisions. Rigaku is committed to understanding our customers'
requirements and expectations and this survey helps us to determine
if we are meeting those requirements.
A 2005 study* published
in the Journal of Marketing compared the performance of companies in
the top 20% of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI)
to the performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The ACSI 20%
outperformed the Dow Jones average by 93%, the S&P 500 by 201%
and the NASDAQ by 355%. The ASCI companies yielded an average return
of 40%. Cost cutting and profit enhancing strategies might yield
short term gains but customer satisfaction is the ultimate driver of
long term profitability and sustainable growth. Other recent
research into the correlation between customer satisfaction and
business outcomes has shown that companies with high customer
satisfaction had 10% higher profits and 11.6% higher margins.
With the significance
of customer satisfaction having been established, we are pleased to
report progress across all product groups as compared to our last
survey. Again, we want to thank everyone for their participation.
* Gustafsson, A. and
Johnson, M.D. The Effects of Customer Satisfaction,
Relationship Commitment Dimensions, and Triggers on Customer
Retention, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 69, No. 4, p. 210 (2005).
CrystalClear
1.4.0 released
CrystalClear 1.4.0 has
been released. The key new features include:
-
CrystalClear for
the new SCXmini instrument is now a single integrated package
for small molecule crystallography.
-
Structure
determination and subsequent refinements are based on
well-established SHELX structure programs SHELXS and SHELXL
using a modeling program called System-Y to perform atom
substitution and bonding processing. Structure solution by
Patterson and direct methods is accomplished with SHELXS and
structure refinements are performed using SHELXL. Space group
determination uses PROCESS package used in Rigaku's
CrystalStructure package.
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A powerful molecular viewer
dynamically displays System-Y modeling steps as they are
processed. It is also used for post-structure manual refinements
and molecular manipulations.
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Automatic and manual image
collections are provided. Indexing, processing, and structure
determination steps have simplified dialogs and setup
procedures.
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CIF output and other structure results are placed
in a sample subdirectory.
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Setup and optimized have been
simplified for the SCXmini X-ray source, goniometer, and Mercury
2 detector hardware.
Support for the new
d*TREK® 9.7 processing package.-
Dramatically increased speed
(up to 3X) for d*TREK processing server using optimized
MSCSServProceDTREK.exe. -
Improved CrystalClear server interface
to Director with support for the multiple-scan strategy features
now provided by d*TREK 9.7. -
Crystal ranking has been improved
for use both with ACTOR and manual use. -
Improvements in
indexing, scaling, and space group determination.
Support for the
latest enhancements in the FS_Process package.
Support
for the upgraded TwinSolve 1.67 processing package for twinned
crystals which now includes support for the Rigaku Kappa
goniometer.
Support for the Rigaku Kappa goniometer and
new Saturn 724,
724+, 944,
944+, and Mercury 2 CCD detectors.
Updated Instrument Servers (CCD, R-AXIS, and
RAPID/SPIDER) with
support for new hardware options.
Expanded support for the
separate JXG X-ray generator control, including a new
pre-collection JXG script running mechanism.
Incorporation of XML database file generation allowing ASCII
text editing/viewing of program default parameter databases.
Updates to the image viewer including new circle masking
and middle mouse button support for dragging operations.
Still image collection capability.
Updated/improved
collision detection XML files for various instruments.
Updated site defaults for all instruments.
Expanded
configuration file control for various CrystalClear operations.
Improved support for Japanese character display when
using Japanese Windows® OS.
FS_ABSCOR absorption
correction algorithm as an optional alternative to the Jacobson
REQAB algorithm.
Improved CIF file generation and
versioning.
Numerous fixes and minor enhancements.
Improved installation and setup.
This release is
available to all customers who are under warranty or under a current
software support contract. If you are not currently under software
support you can gain access to the new version by buying a one year
software support contract.
>>> Click here
for more information
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