Bruker Participates in Dutch Funded Super Microscope Project

Madison, Wis. -- Bruker AXS Inc., a provider of X-ray solutions for the life and materials sciences, announced Thursday that it has been selected to participate in the $22.2 million Cyttron “super microscope” project in the Netherlands. The project is half-funded by the Dutch government, and over three years Madison, Wis.-based Bruker AXS expects to receive approximately $950,000 in matching funds.

The Dutch government called for the development of a "super microscope," dubbed the Cyttron, which is designed to have the capability to zoom in on the molecular structure of a human cell. It is believed that the microscope could be an important booster for medical research, drug design or the development of production processes using micro-organisms.
The Cyttron’s development will integrate molecular information and images acquired with X-ray crystallography, transmission electron microscopy, visible light microscopy, scanning microscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance with advanced software.

Participants in the Cyttron consortium include European universities and several companies, as specialists in electron microscopy, X-ray crystallography and drug design. The Cyttron project is headed by Professor J. P. Abrahams from Leiden University, located the Netherlands.

“The X-ray crystallography R&D competency within Bruker AXS …as well as the complementary nature of the technologies of our partners, gives us high confidence that the work of this consortium will lead to applicable results and marketable products within the drug discovery chain," said Martin Haase, president and chief executive officer of Bruker AXS and senior vice president of Bruker BioSciences.