UV imaging tool for protein crystallography by Rigaku
Rigaku calls its Desktop Minstrel UV the world's first fully automated UV imaging and protein crystal monitoring system. It uses UV fluorescence microscopy and enables monitoring of crystal growth by distinguishing protein crystals from non-protein crystals, such as salt.
The Desktop Minstrel UV uses Rigaku's trademarked Clean Lite Technology and includes an ultraviolet microscope, providing illumination with the wavelength matching the absorption of the fluorescing amino acids, such as tryptophan. The fluorescing light is digitally recorded by a camera with a CCD sensor.
The unit is built upon the platform of Rigaku's imaging automation technology designed to enable the evaluation of a large number of crystallization experiments. It promises to let researchers accurately harvest protein crystals for data collection or design follow-up experiments.