Technology

The X-ray Crystallography Core Laboratory at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio offers state-of-the-art macromolecular X-ray crystallographic instrumentation operating on a collaborative use basis. The equipment infrastructure of the facility presently includes two complete X-ray crystallography systems:

1) Rigaku R-AXIS HTC imaging plate area detector with VariMax HighFlux optics mounted on a high-flux MIcroMax 007HF generator with an X-STREAM cryogenic crystal cooling system

2) Rigaku R-AXIS HTC imaging plate area detector with VariMax HighRes optics mounted on a high-flux MIcroMax 007HF generator with an X-STREAM cryogenic crystal cooling system

The improved brilliance of the 007HF equipped with VariMax optics relative to conventional home lab X-ray sources gives researchers the in-house capability to work with very small or poorly diffracting crystals. Computational hardware (Intel Quad-core Linux workstations) and software (CNS, CCP4, COOT, d*TREK, HKL-2000, PHENIX, SHARP, SHELX, etc.) are also in place enabling the complete protein structure determination and refinement process to be accomplished in relatively short order.

Rigaku MicroMax 007HF X-ray Generator

Left Port: Single-phi goniostat, R-AXIS HTC detector, VariMax HighFlux Optics

Right Port: Single-phi goniostat, R-AXIS HTC detector, VariMax HighRes Optics