Rigaku Americas Corporation
is pleased to announce that the company has entered into an agreement with TTP
LabTech (Royston, UK) to offer the mosquito nanolitre pipetting system as part
of the Rigaku CrystalMation™ platform for automated protein crystallization
experiments. As used by the pharmaceutical industry for rational drug design,
the mosquito technology will be implemented on a custom basis for customers
doing high-throughput research on membrane proteins, as well as RNA and DNA
research.
TTP LabTech's mosquito is widely used for automated crystallography throughout
the world. The mosquito has disposable, positive displacement pipettes, which
ensure zero cross contamination, and the instrument can accurately aspirate
and dispense a wide range of liquid types and viscosities. Mosquito's precise
linear drives and optical sensors achieve positional accuracy better than 0.05
mm in the X, Y and Z axes. This, along with the tightly toleranced and relatively
short pipette tips, allows drops to be placed with a high degree of accuracy
in the center of sub-wells in crystallography-specific microplates or onto hanging
drop membranes.
Specifically engineered to meet demanding objectives, the Rigaku CrystalMation
system consists of banks of the Rigaku Minstrel™ HT imaging instruments,
each coupled to up to two Rigaku Gallery™ 700 incubators. These incubators,
operating at either ambient temperature or down to 4°C, are integrated by
a central Rigaku Integration Module™. Complete liquid handling, for both
screen makeup and protein dispense, are automated using the respective Rigaku
Alchemist™ II, Phoenix™ RE and TTP LabTech mosquito modules in conjunction
with robotic plate sealer stations. CrystalTrak, an Oracle™ based database
application, forms the software backbone for designing, capturing, and analyzing
crystallization experiments.
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.