Company Announcements Biosearch Technologies acquired the rights from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey to US Patent No. 6,150,097 (Nucleic Acid Detection Probes Having Non-FRET Fluorescence Quenching and Kits and Assays Including Such Probes), as well as counterpart international patents. The company also acquired the rights to sublicense the rights to companies. […]

Company Announcements In February, New England Biolabs (NEB) and Synthetic Genomics entered into a licensing agreement. NEB will introduce a master mix based on the Gibson Assembly method, which enables the rapid assembly of multiple DNA fragments using a one-step, isothermal approach. Eppendorf licensed patents covering gradient technology for thermal cyclers to Agilent Technologies in […]

The 23rd Analytica exhibition and conference took place in Munich, Germany, from April 17 to 20. As usual, it was a roaring success. Although the attendance of 30,000 was down slightly from 32,061 in 2010, it was hard to tell, given the general enthusiasm throughout the exhibition’s five halls. The number of exhibitors was up […]

Company Announcements New England Biolabs (NEB) agreed in October 2011 to distribute the Single Cell Whole Genome Amplification Kit, which uses Rubicon Genomics’ amplification technology. This is the first NEB product targeted at the single-cell amplification market. WaferGen Biosystems CEO and President Alnoor Shivji resigned in October 2011 but remains chairman. An Office of the […]

The life science instrumentation (LSI) market encompasses a broad spectrum of technologies grouped into a dozen categories. LSI technologies range from mature, multibillion dollar markets to high-growth, burgeoning technology segments. Overall, the LSI market is the largest technology sector in the analytical instrument market, accounting for about a quarter of total sales. The LSI market […]

PCR has been around for more than 25 years. As bench space becomes more scarce, the demand for more miniaturized PCR systems has grown. Handheld and portable PCR systems, which were introduced to the market in the early 2000s, add a variety of applications not possible with benchtop PCR systems. In vitro diagnostics and point-of-care […]

This month, Life Technologies introduced the QuantStudio 12K Flex Real-Time PCR System, a new PCR platform for real time and digital PCR. The system will ship in the first quarter of 2012 at a price, depending on configuration, of $90,000–$190,000. The system runs PCR experiments via five interchangeable blocks: 96-well plates, fast 96-well plates for […]

Company Announcements Exiqon named four Centers of Excellence, which each provide services based on its products: TATAA Biocenter, Bioneer, AROS Applied Biotechnology and the Roswell Park Cancer Institute Division of Health Research. In July, New England Biolabs exclusively licensed specific SomaLogic SOMAmers as critical reagents for its current and future nucleic acid–amplification products. SOMAmers are […]

Hercules, CA 10/5/11—Bio-Rad Laboratories has acquired QuantaLife for $162 million in cash and potential future milestone payments. QuantaLife is a developer of digital PCR technology (see IBO 12/15/10), which can be used for the detection of rare mutations. The company’s Droplet Digital system (ddPCR) is used for the validation of next-generation sequencing results. “We are […]

Foodborne pathogen testing is one of the fastest-growing segments of the real-time PCR (qPCR) market. Participants in the market include both qPCR instrument and reagent providers, including Bio-Rad Laboratories, Life Technologies and Roche, as well as companies that specialize in products for food testing, such as BIOTECON, Congen and DuPont Qualicon. Earlier this year, both […]