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X-ray Crystallography Laboratory

X-ray Crystallography Laboratory

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  • Introduction

    The SCSB X-ray Crystallography Laboratory is located on the 6th floor of the Libby Moody Thompson Basic Science Building. Its mission is to provide access to state of the art X-ray diffraction instrumentation and the associated support facilities for crystallographic research at UTMB.

    The Center has recently installed new x-ray diffraction and solution scattering instrumentation for the lab. The new equipment starts with the Rigaku Ultimate Home Lab which comprises the unsurpassed high-brilliance FR-E++DW Superbright x-ray generator, with the industry standard RAXIS-IV++ crystallography system with both Cu and Cr optics. In addition, we have acquired the innovative Rigaku BioSAXS-1000 with a 96-well automatic sample changer. This is the first SAXS instrument dedicated to biological research in the southern mid-western states, once again marking UTMB as a leader in structural biology resources.

    The SCSB X-ray Crystallography resources currently consists of two x-ray area detector systems. The first area detector is a Rigaku R-Axis-IV++ dual 30cm Imaging Plate detector mounted on the Rigaku FR-E++DW Superbright x-ray generator. The second detector is a Brüker D8 Venture with the high intensity TURBO TXS source, which can reach upto 0.84 Å resolution. For enhanced data we have available a choice of sample cooling systems. Both systems are equipped with Crysosystems, the R-AXIS a Cryo Industries of America CRYOCOOLER, the Brüker an Oxford Cryostream 800. A 4 °C Cold Air refrigerated cooling system is available for samples which cannot be frozen, or do not require freezing.

    The Rigaku BioSAXS-1000 2D-Kratky camera is mounted on the left port of our Rigaku FR-E++DW Superbright x-ray generator. The camera is equiped with a 96-well automatic sample changer (ASC-96) with an in-vacu quartz flow-cell. In addition, we have several quartz sample cells for manual loading of smaller sample volumes or detergent samples, which are not compatible with the ASC-96 liquid handling system. The quality of SAXS data obtained with the BioSAXS camera has been exceptional. Using our in-house SAXNS web-services for data processing and analysis the optimal quality data can be collected. It is not unusual to collect useful data to the limit of the detector (q~0.7 Å-1). This camera offers unsurpassed solution scattering data for macromolecular samples. For more information visit our SAXNS site.

  • Instruments
    Rigaku R-AXIS-IV++Rigaku_BioSAXS-1000asBruker_D8Vs

    • PHOENIX
    • Alchemist
    • Nanodrop-1000
  • Documentation
  • Contact

    For more information please contact the SCSBMB X-ray Crystallography manager.

    Manager

    Mark A. White, PhD
    E-mail: mawhite@utmb.edu
    Tel: (409) 747-4747

    Research Scientist

    Michael Woodson, PhD
    E-mail: miwoodso@utmb.edu
    Tel: (409) 772-6327

    Advisory Committee

     

  • Scheduling

    New users and current users who have new research projects and/or new grants are asked to please complete the Usage form:

    Instrument Scheduling