Carlsbad, CA. Rigaku Americas Corporation and Art Robbins Instruments are pleased to announce that all Phoenix RE (Rigaku Edition) protein drop setters will now be equipped with a new nano-dispense head, the ARI nano. This nano-dispense head offers significant benefits over previous models by improving the dispense accuracy of proteins, improved washing, and expanding the service life of the dispense needles. These improvements are due to a flow through design that, combined with a pump and two reservoirs, allows for a significantly improved washing of the needles. With this new design, the ARI nano, in addition to air backed dispensing, adds the ability to perform liquid backed dispensing – that delivers superior accuracy for both highly viscous proteins and dispenses volumes below 100 nl. The nano-dispense head can be configured with up to 4 channels.

The Phoenix RE is a modified Art Robbins Instruments Phoenix liquid handler that is used to set up protein crystallization plates. Featuring a positive displacement 96 channel head, to dispense the screens, and a non-contact nano dispenser to dispense the protein, the Phoenix RE employs an accurate closed loop motion to produce the drop on drop dispenses required for protein crystallography.

Protein crystals are required for protein crystallography, which is a core structural biology technique that uses X-ray Diffraction (XRD) to obtain three dimensional (3D) structures of proteins and protein complexes. Protein structures provide detailed insight into fundamental biological processes in support of understanding disease mechanisms and the rational drug design process. Today, 44 organizations worldwide rely on the Phoenix RE to set up protein crystallization experiments, including academic, government, pharmaceutical and biotech companies. When incorporated into a Rigaku CrystalMation system, the Phoenix RE can be used for fully automated high throughput protein crystal production.

About Art Robbins Instruments

Art Robbins Instruments, a privately held company, was founded in 2003 by a team with more than 75 years of experience developing high quality products for life sciences. Initial product offerings included the Intelli-Plates and Crystal Phoenix for protein crystallography, which have been enthusiastically adopted by more than 180 laboratories worldwide. The company continues to research and develop new high quality products for protein crystallography, liquid handling and tissue for laboratories of all sizes. ARI is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California with distributors around the world. Visit www.artrobbins.com to learn more.

About Rigaku

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 its credit, Rigaku and its subsidiary 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