This month’s highlights include our first video Tip of the Month, a look at Simon Bates’ upcoming webinar on solid form challenges, and a spotlight on the XtaLAB Synergy-DW. Plus, a recap from the BCA Spring Meeting.
This month, we have our first Tip of the Month in video format, produced by Lee Daniels, titled One Bad Reflection. Please let me know your thoughts on using a video for the Tip of the Month instead of the more conventional text exposition. We highlight Simon Bates’ upcoming webinar, Solving Pharma’s Toughest Solid Form Challenges with Electron Diffraction. The product of the month is the XtaLAB Synergy-DW. Fraser provides a report on the British Crystallographic Association’s Spring Meeting..
In this session, we will explore how Micro Electron Diffraction (MicroED) can address some of the toughest solid form challenges in pharmaceutical development, particularly when working with sub-milligram samples that are impure, highly disordered, or nanocrystalline. You will learn how MicroED supports structural characterization during early discovery and development, including determining connectivity and polymorphism in imperfect crystals and evaluating disorder caused by processing. The session will also include real-world examples, such as polymorph screening and analysis of nanoparticle delivery systems, showing how MicroED helps guide better decisions throughout the drug development process. Join us to see how ED is transforming research, register now!
The RSfPC is a course aimed at newcomers to crystallography and focuses on the practical aspects of crystallography with 10 lectures covering approx 10 hours and a course exam at the end.
The Rigaku School for Practical Crystallography was created during the pandemic to help fill the gap left by the cancellation of many regional crystallographic teaching schools. Thanks to the positive response over the past four years, it has continued to grow. Now offered on-demand, the course aims to make learning more accessible by overcoming time-zone challenges and reaching a wider audience.
We’re excited to welcome new students to the Rigaku School for Practical Crystallography.
Our LinkedIn groupshares information and fosters discussion about X-ray crystallography and SAXS topics. Connect with other research groups and receive updates on how they use these techniques in their own laboratories. You can also catch up on the latest newsletter or Rigaku Journal issue. We also hope that you will share information about your own research and laboratory groups.
Atrigakuxrayforum.comyou can find discussions about software, general crystallography issues and more. It’s also the place to download the latest version of Rigaku Oxford Diffraction’sCrysAlisProsoftware for single crystal data processing.
The ultimate single crystal X-ray diffractometer for a wide range of crystallographic applications
The introduction in 2004 of the Oxford Diffraction Gemini diffractometer, with two independent X-ray sources, was a watershed moment in crystallographic instrumentation. The groundbreaking design of the Gemini suddenly gave crystallographers the ability to easily switch between Cu and Mo wavelengths and greatly expanded the experimental flexibility available for analyzing single crystal samples. The XtaLAB Synergy-DW is an evolution of that revolutionary idea which retains the flexibility of the dual wavelength capability but in addition adds the exceptional flux enhancement of a reliable, rotating anode X-ray source. It is the perfect diffractometer for a core facility where protein crystallography and small molecule crystallography are both practiced.
Configuration
The XtaLAB Synergy-DW diffractometer contains a PhotonJet-R X-ray source that is based on the proven, low-maintenanceMicroMax-007 HF microfocus rotating anode X-ray generator. The target is constructed with two different X-ray source materials (the following combinations are available: Mo/Cu, Cu/Cr, Cu/Co, Cu/Ag, and Ag/Mo) and is coupled with an auto-switching dual-wavelength optic. Two wavelengths of X-ray radiation are available at the click of a button and switching between wavelengths takes only 5 minutes. Rounding out the XtaLAB Synergy-DW configuration is the fast and efficient four-circle kappa goniometer which is coupled with Rigaku’s Hybrid Photon Counting (HPC) X-ray detector, theHyPix-6000HE(or optionally the curved, large theta coverage detectors,HyPix-Arc 100°orHyPix-Arc 150°.) which has essentially no readout noise, no dark noise and high dynamic range. All of this controlled by the CrysAlisPro diffraction software package with sophisticated algorithms to tie the hardware together to minimize the time it takes to measure and solve single crystal X-ray structures.
The XtaLAB Synergy-DW now comes equipped with our new UG3 goniometer, which offers faster, more efficient data collections. For more information about the UG3,please see the overview page.
Proven reliability
The PhotonJet-R source was designed with reliability in mind. Clever Rigaku engineering makes filament changes easy, like swapping a printer cartridge, with no need to realign the source each time. Scheduled maintenance involves one annual visit from a Rigaku engineer, as with all XtaLAB Synergy diffractometers, and typically takes 1-2 days. With the anode exchange program, you get the benefit of rotating anode power with the convenience of sealed tubes.
Beam conditioning
Where overlapping peaks are a concern, e.g. large unit cells, proteins, twinned or incommensurate lattices, high beam divergence is undesirable. On PhotonJet sources, a software controlled, motorized variable beam slit is available as an option to alter divergence to adapt the source to your sample’s requirements. For those samples where intensity matters most, the slit can be fully opened giving the highest flux. For those where peak sharpness and overlap are factors, the beam can be limited to a divergence anywhere between 1 to 10 mrad.
CrysAlisPro
The XtaLAB Synergy-DW comes complete with CrysAlisPro, our user-inspired data collection and data processing software for single crystal analysis. Designed around an easy-to-use graphical user interface, CrysAlisPro can be operated under fully automatic, semi-automatic or manual control. CrysAlisPro combines automated crystal screening, the fastest and most accurate strategy software available, concurrent data reduction and automatic small molecule structure solution. CrysAlisPro can operate either in a protein or small molecule dedicated workflow. Popular third-party protein data processing packages can easily process diffraction data if desired. Visual feedback is provided for each step with clear, color-coded guidance so that both novices and experts can collect high-quality data in the shortest time possible.
AutoChem
AutoChem is the ultimate productivity tool for small molecule chemists, offering fast, fully automatic structure solution and refinement during data collection. Developed in collaboration with OlexSys Ltd (Durham University, UK), AutoChem works in conjunction with Olex² where more advanced structure solution and refinement functionality exists. AutoChem is seamlessly integrated within CrysAlisPro, and forms an integral part of our ‘What is this?’ feature. The ‘What is this?’ feature gives you structures quickly and ensures you are not wasting time collecting full datasets on known samples or starting materials. It is an alternative pre-experiment option, which is used to plan your full data collections.
Rigaku offers a crystal structure determination service with scientific support, with data collection on a XtaLAB Synergy-ED diffractometer in Rigaku's own laboratories.
Access our electron diffraction service delivering all structural information, datasets, raw data files and software to re-process at your own leisure. Electron diffraction can be carried out on samples with crystallites under 1 micron in size, meaning that crystallization trials for traditional X-ray analysis no longer have to become a bottle neck to structural analysis.
2025 British Crystallographic Association Spring Meeting
by Fraser White
The BCA Spring Meeting 2025 was once again held at the University of Leeds, and brought together crystallographers from all corners of the UK and even further afield, with attendees from as far away as Hong Kong and the USA. The theme of this year’s meeting was “Learning from Others” with a program intended to facilitate that theme.
One of my favorite aspects of the meeting is the “Would you publish it?” session, which features often more whimsical or philosophical talks about those structures we’ve all collected, but worry about what the referees might say. With electron diffraction producing structures with higher R-factors and ever more challenging research targets, sessions like this offer some reassurance that the R-factor is not the only thing that matters.
This was also the first BCA meeting where I recall seeing a plenary on the topic of AI in research, particularly materials discovery. I’m sure we have all at least tried AI with both fantastic and concerning results. AI continues to be a controversial topic with a lot of hype, and this plenary by Prof. Robert Palgrave attempted to address the role of AI in such research without shying away from the failures of this emerging field. Other plenaries covered amorphous pharmaceuticals, supramolecular organization in biologics, and a talk on the role of crystallography to understand the past, present, and future.
Electron diffraction continues to feature on the program, with a range of talks from more practical aspects through to science being done with electron diffraction and the development of instrumentation for electron diffraction at the Diamond light source, the HeXI project. As time goes on, it is clear that electron diffraction is becoming more accepted and established.
Rigaku was proud to sponsor the Oral Presentation prize for the ESCG, which was awarded to Celine Beck from The University of Glasgow/Diamond Light Source, and the Poster Presentation prize for the ESCG which was awarded to Catherine Dunsford from The University of Kent.
The BCA continues to be one of my favorite conferences to attend thanks to the friendly atmosphere alongside world-class research without being an overwhelmingly large and busy meeting.
Tip of the Month
One Bad Reflection
By Lee Daniels
Here is a short video to show you how to find, validate and remove that one bad reflection ruining your otherwise great structure.
Scientists from China and the US have synthesized andcharacterized metal-centered [15] annulenes.This is particularly interesting to me since I made metal-centered [12] annulenes for my Ph. D.
Expand Your Crystallization Potential—pH Range 2.4 to 11.6
Fine-tune your crystallization experiments with the Wizard pH Buffer Screen, a robust tool designed to optimize protein crystal growth across a wide pH spectrum. This 96-well set includes 12 unique buffer systems at 8 pH levels each, spanning ±1.4 pH units around their pKa—ideal for exploring how pH and buffer identity influence crystallization outcomes.
Whether you're complementing existing 96-well formulation screens or seeking a deeper understanding of your protein’s behavior, this screen is your go-to for adding precision and versatility to your trials.
