Company Announcements

Life Technologies announced in July an agreement to distribute CEERAM’s (the European Centre for Expertise and Research on Microbial Agents) RT-qPCR assays for the detection of Norovirus GI and Norovirus GII, Hepatitis A and the Mengovirus Extraction Control Kit.

Under a joint development agreement announced in July, Rheonix will supply its technology to Life Technologies for marketing, sales and distribution for food testing applications, including serotype identification.

In August, Life Technologies expanded its food safety portfolio to include testing solutions for spoilage organisms in the brewing and beverage market by partnering with PIKA Weihenstephan to offer PIKA’s Fast Orange Nutrient Broth and PCR tests for at-line testing.

EnviroLogix announced in July a letter of intent for distribution of its DNAble v2.0 chemistry by Douglas Scientific with Douglas’s Array Tape lab automation platforms. The companies also agreed to a cross-distribution agreement for new technologies.

RainDance Technologies announced in July that Trovagen adopted its RainDrop Digital PCR System for R&D and eventual use in the firm’s clinical lab. Trovagen also developed a cell-free DNA mutation assay for the platform.

In September, RainDance Technologies announced the closing of a structured debt financing with Capital Royalty Partners, providing the firm with up to $35 million.

Product Introductions

New England Biolabs released the Q5 Site-Directed Mutagenesis Kit, which is capable of introducing longer insertions and deletions, and the NEBaseChanger SDM primer design tool.

Life Technologies introduced in July the QuantStudio 7 Flex Real-Time PCR system, featuring four interchangeable blocks, and the entry-level QuantStudio 6 Flex Real-Time PCR system, with three interchangeable blocks for mid-level throughput needs.

In July, Bio-Rad Laboratories launched the QX200 Droplet Digital PCR system, a second generation system, stating it is the only digital PCR system that works with EvaGreen and TaqMan hydrolysis probes.

Bio-Rad Laboratories released in August the iTaq universal SYBR Green one-step kit and the iTaq universal probes one-step kit for RT-qPCR.

Integrated DNA Technologies introduced the PrimeTime Eco Probe and PrimeTime Mini LNA Probe for mid-scale qPCR.

TriLink BioTechnologies launched the dilute-and-go mitoPrimers for mtDNA PCR amplification and sequencing in forensic identification.

In October, RainDance Technologies added one-step single molecule RNA detection capabilities to its RainDrop Digital PCR System.