A high brightness laser-plasma X-ray source has been set-up and is presentl
y available at IFAM. A wide range of diagnostics has been set up to monitor
the properties of the X-ray radiation and to control the main parameters i
ncluding photon energy, flux intensity, and pulse duration. A beam extracto
r enables access to the X-ray radiation at atmospheric pressure. A simple,
easy-to-use projection microscope has been built which is capable of single
-shot micron resolution imaging with digital acquisition. Preliminary biome
dical experiments show that the X-ray doses available on a single laser sho
t exposure of our source fully meet the conditions required for an importan
t class of biological experiments based on X-ray induced DNA damage providi
ng an ideal alternative to the long time exposures needed with X-ray tubes.