Company Announcements

SpectralWorks and MestreLab Research announced in August a mutual reseller agreement for integration of MS and NMR sample submission, tracking and data processing.

In September, SCIEX named Inese Lowenstein as president, replacing Jean-Paul Mangeolle, who retired. Her most recent role was senior vice president, Global Sales and Service. Joe Fox, vice president of Separations, has taken over that position.

In November, SCIEX Diagnostics announced a joint venture with Zhejiang Dian Diagnostics, which researches, develops and supplies medical diagnostics products and services in China. The parties plan to establish a joint venture in Hangzhou, China, to develop, register, manufacture and commercialize Class I, II and III IVD reagents for the SCIEX Triple Quad 4500MD LC-MS/MS system, a solution approved by the China Food and Drug Administration earlier this year.

SCIEX and the Protein and Proteomics Centre under the Department of Biological Sciences at the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Faculty of Science announced the launch of a first-of-its-kind proteomics and MS training center in Southeast Asia in 2018 aimed at training the next generation of scientists to advance biomedical research and proteomics studies across Asia Pacific. The NUS and SCIEX have collaborated before.

Cayman Chemical announced in September a collaboration with Thermo Fisher Scientific and HighChem to provide tandem spectra to the mzCloud library of mass data.

In September, Biognosys entered into a co-marketing agreement with Waters to provide a workflow for Data-Independent Acquisition (DIA) MS-based proteomics studies by combining their respective Spectronaut Pulsar software and SONAR data acquisition technology.

Agena Bioscience entered into a strategic partnership in September with Molecular Health (MH), a provider of cloud-based decision support technology for precision medicine. MH’s Molecular Health Guide analysis platform will aid interpretation of raw data generated by Agena’s MassARRAY System. The relationship is part of Agena’s MassARRAY Insights reporting network.

In October, Agena Bioscience announced a strategic partnership with N-of-One to provide interpretation of cancer genomic data generated by its MassARRAY system. This relationship is also part of Agena’s MassARRAY Insights reporting network.

LabCyte in September announced GSK and AstraZeneca as members of a consortium to combine acoustic liquid dispensing technology MS for high-throughput small molecule screening and other drug discovery applications. LabCyte plans to launch a commercial Acoustic-MS system designed to support a broad range of assays.

In September, Microsaic Systems named COO Glenn Tracey as CEO.

Protea Biosciences announced in October that it plans to develop clinical screening assays in various areas of oncology. The assay will be developed on Bruker’s rapifleX MALDI Tissuetyper.

In its third quarter conference call, PerkinElmer announced the registration of its QSight MS system as a Class I device with the US FDA and the completion of CE marking in Europe. The CE marking enables use in clinical applications beyond newborn screening.

In October, Hiden Analytical signed an agreement with the University of California, Berkeley Laboratory to produce a novel dual-layer differential electrochemical flow cell for operating with its HPR-40 DSA membrane inlet MS.

Astrotech, whose 1^st Detect business manufactures MS-based system for chemical analysis, announced in November the expansion of its review of strategic alternatives to include those involving the company as a whole as well as the subsidiaries.

In November, Shimadzu Scientific Instruments announced a collaborative relationship with Northern Michigan University (NMU) to support NMU’s new four-year undergraduate degree program in Medicinal Plant Chemistry. The support includes a grant to purchase a triple quadrupole LC/MS system.

Product Introductions

In September, Hiden Analytical launched the Hiden CATLAB-PCS combined microreactor and MS system for the characterization and evaluation of catalysts for temperature-programmed desorption and reaction testing, and for general thermal studies.

PerkinElmer introduced in September the QSight 210 MD System, a tandem MS system for neonatal screening applications designed to run hundreds of samples per day. It features a complete workflow, including sample preparation.

In September, SCIEX released the CE-marked SCIEX Topaz LC-MS/MS System for clinical diagnostics in Europe.

Shimadzu debuted in September the DPiMS-2020 probe electrospray ionization MS, which uses Probe Electro Spray Ionization (PESI) for sample ionization without pretreatment. It requires only adding 10 pL or less of liquid from a chemical product, food ingredient or biological sample on a plate for complete preparation.

In November, Biognosys released a new version of QuiC, an easy-to-use tool to monitor performance of a proteomics workflow over time. QuiC automatically analyzes MRM (Multiple Reaction Monitoring), PRM (Parallel Reaction Monitoring), DDA (Data Dependent Acquistiion) and DIA (Data Independent Acquisition) data, and extracts LC and MS performance indicators.

Shimadzu launched in November the MALDI-8020 MS, stating it offers the world’s highest level of analytical performance in a benchtop model.  The system is half the size of existing Shimadzu MALDI systems.