Company Announcements

Biocartis completed a €30 million ($40 million) Series E equity fundraising in November 2013.

BioMérieux and Biocartis agreed in November 2013 to terminate their collaboration. BioMérieux remains a Biocartis shareholder.

Agilent Technologies announced in November 2013 a collaboration with Baylor College of Medicine’s Medical Genetics Laboratories to provide customized comparative genomics hybridization (CGH) microarrays.

Agilent released an enhanced version of its SureDesign microarray design software that enables clinical researchers to design customized CGH, chromatin immunoprecipitation and DNA methylation microarrays for molecular cytogenomics and other applications. It replaces these applications for the eArray platform.

Sequenom Executive Vice President, Strategic Planning, Ronald M. Lindsay, retired from employment on December 31, 2013, but remains on the company’s Board.

In January, Affymetrix appointed Andrew J. Last, PhD, COO. He previously served as executive vice president, Genetic Analysis Business Unit. The company also named David Weber CCO. He previously served as executive vice president, Global Commercial Operations.

Product Introductions

In November 2013, NanoString Technologies launched the nCounter Dx Analysis System in the US for high complexity, CLIA-certified labs. It is designed to run the Prosigna Breast Cancer Assay and process translational research experiments and multiplexed assays developed by the clinical lab.

InDevR launched the miPLEX multiplexed platform, a combination of service, consumables and instrumentation for upgrading target-specific reagents provided by partner companies from single-well immunoassays to a highly multiplexed platform. MiPLEX includes the new Vidia fluorescence microarray imaging system.

Affymetrix introduced the Minimal Signature E. coli Array, a multigenome pathogen microarray designed by the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition for the detection and identification of pathogenic E. coli during foodborne outbreaks. It contains every known E. coli gene and over 10,000 SNP biomarkers.

In December 2013, Toray Industries launched in Europe the 3D-Gene DNA microarray, reagent and scanner for analyzing miRNA in blood.

In January, ProteinSimple introduced the Wes system and consumables for low cost Western blotting. It requires 30 minutes of sample preparation and analyzes up to 25 samples in under three hours.

PerkinElmer launched the IVIS Lumina X RMS Series III multispecies multimodal imaging system for bioluminescence and low-dose X-ray imaging, along with 2-D in vivo fluorescence imaging.