Company Announcements

In November, Pressure BioSciences named Professor Tiannan Guo’s lab at Westlake Institute for Advanced Study as its first Center of Excellence in China.

In December, Pressure BioSciences acquired the assets of BaroFold, maker of the PreEMT high-pressure protein refolding technology for scientific research and biopharmaceutical manufacturing applications. The majority of the purchase price was paid in Pressure BioSciences’ restricted common stock.

Purigen Biosystems, which is developing a nucleic acid sample preparation technique based on isotachophoresis technology, named Barney Saunders, PhD, as CEO and a Board member in December. Most recently, he served as Nanostring Technologies’ commercial leader.

In December, Zymo Research entered into a collaboration with Bertin to ensure the sample lysis step in the microbiome workflow is complete and unbiased. The solution combines Bertin’s Precellys Evolution Homogenizer, and Zymo Research’s ZymoBIOMICS Microbial Community Standards and ZymoBIOMICS DNA Miniprep Kit.

Product Introductions

In September, Tecan launched the automated RESOLVEX A200 positive pressure workstation for LC/MS sample preparation, which is lighter and smaller than the previous system. The walkaway system features eight-channel dispensing, and is compatible with Tecan’s range of 96-well plate and column format smart consumables.

Promega introduced in November the Maxprep™ Liquid Handler and the Maxwell RSC (Rapid Sample Concentrator) 48 Instrument for use with its Maxwell nucleic acid preparation solution. The Maxprep™ automates sample preparation of Maxwell RSC cartridges and trays, as well as post-extraction sample preparation for fluorescence quantitation, sample normalization and a variety of PCR reaction setups. The Maxwell RSC 48 works with individual prefilled cartridges to process 1–48 samples without the risk of wasting reagents. New Promega Portal Software allows the instruments to work together to transfer sample tracking information.

In November, Chromatrap, a Porvair company, released an affordable, easy-to-use range of DNA kits for routine molecular biology applications: the Chromatrap DNA Extraction kit, which is available in both spin column and 96-well plate designs; the Chromatrap DNA and Gel Purification kits; the Chromatrap DNA Purify & Concentrate kit; and the Chromatrap Size Selection kit.