XRD Instruments for Research into Protein Structure Determination

Rigaku Americas Corporation is pleased to announce that the University of Dundee, Scotland has chosen to update their X-ray crystallography facility with the most advanced fully automated protein crystallography system from Rigaku. The new equipment includes the Rigaku MicroMax 007HF generator, a VariMax VHF optic, Saturn 944HG CCD detector and ACTOR robotic sample changer. The new facility will complement their existing Rigaku automated protein crystallisation platform.

The new equipment from Rigaku is funded by a grant from the Wellcome Trust in support of structural biology and drug discovery. It will be used for research in single crystal X-ray diffraction, the most powerful analytical technique that reveals accurate three-dimensional molecular structures. Knowledge of the structural models can enable understanding of how a molecule can contribute to a biological process or reveal the chemical interactions that are critical for applications relating to the manner in which a drug might work or be improved. With new access to a more intense X-ray source, a more sensitive detector, and robotics to improve efficiency, researchers at Dundee are primed to expand structural studies research addressing important and fundamental aspects of biology together with key issues in human health.

The grant, awarded to Professors William Hunter, Daan van Aalten, David Lilley, Tom Owen-Hughes and Paul Wyatt will support a wide range of projects – from the most challenging studies on nucleic acid structures, multi-protein complexes and enzymes that inform on basic aspects of biology to the characterisation of protein ligand complexes that support early stage medicinal chemistry and drug discovery efforts, that is translational research.

Dr Mark Benson of Rigaku Europe remarked, “We are thrilled to continue our long relationship with the University of Dundee. We are particularly proud to be able to offer cutting edge equipment that will provide a step change in efficiency of crystal screening and protein structure determination. Having the combination of Rigaku automated protein crystallisation and now crystallography equipment will greatly increase the productivity of scientists involved in valuable drug discovery research.”