Oxford Diffraction launches Xcalibur PX – a compact and cost-effective macromolecular crystallography system

Oxford Diffraction Limited recently launched the "Xcalibur PX" single crystal diffractometer at the XIX IUCr meeting, held in Geneva in August. The Xcalibur PX system marks the entry of Oxford Diffraction Limited into protein crystallography.

Oxford Diffraction Limited recently launched the "Xcalibur PX" single crystal diffractometer at the XIX International Union of Crystallography Congress, held in Geneva in August. The Xcalibur PX system marks the entry of Oxford Diffraction Limited into the field of macromolecular and protein crystallography, and is intended to be used in home laboratories as a user-friendly, rapid and cost-effective alternative to high cost, high maintenance diffraction systems based on rotating anode technology.

The Xcalibur PX has been developed, and is manufactured and distributed by Oxford Diffraction Limited, an innovative X-ray diffraction company, based in Oxfordshire, UK, with a site in Wroclaw, Poland, and offices in Cologne, Germany, and Concord, MA, USA.

Oxford Diffraction's Xcalibur PX is a turn-key system comprising a high flux source of X-rays, called ENHANCE, a large-area, fast-readout detector, called ONYX, a precise kappa geometry goniometer, and optional cryogenic attachments which enable measurements in an unrivalled temperature range from 15 to 500 Kelvin. The whole system is operated using the proprietary data acquisition software package CRYSALIS.

The ENHANCE source is based on conventional sealed tube technology and exploits a patented optical configuration to dramatically increase the useable flux on the sample without deteriorating the divergence of the beam. The flux gains on a 300 micron sample range from a factor 2.5 to 10 at copper wavelengths, depending on which optical configuration is selected. Using the largest flux gain Xcalibur PX is ideal for laboratory-based protein crystallography, and the source
performance is competitive with many rotating anode configurations - but without many of the associated disadvantages such as high cost of ownership or high down-time.

The ONYX detector is a fast-readout detector with a 165 mm active front-face based on charge-coupled device (CCD) technology. ONYX has been optimised for laboratory diffraction measurements but can also be used for synchrotron applications. ONYX has been designed for low-noise measurements and takes advantage of Oxford Diffraction's patented assembly technology and proprietary electronics to generate the best signal / noise at fast readout of any commercially available large area CCD detector in this field.

Oxford Diffraction's Managing Director, Dr. Paul Loeffen, said "The combination of our novel ENHANCE and ONYX technology, brought together on our robust and highly successful Xcalibur platform, is an exciting development for macromolecular and protein crystallography. For the first time, researchers in home laboratories will be able to undertake rapid, high quality macromolecular and protein crystallography, without the downsides of rotating anodes, and at a very affordable price. We anticipate that the high performance, low-maintenance and keen price of Xcalibur PX will help to make such techniques increasingly accessible to a wider range of laboratories".