Company Announcements SPEX SamplePrep is now the exclusive US distributor of Katanax Automated Electric Fluxers. Skyray Instrument entered the US market in March with four instruments, including the portable Pocket-II x-ray fluorescence spectrometer (XRF). Thermo Fisher Scientific added an optical emission and X-ray spectroscopy product demonstration center to its Training Institute in West Palm Beach, […]

In the second multibillion dollar deal in the analytical instrument industry in less than two years, Invitrogen and Applied Biosystems announced on June 12 a $6.7 billion merger agreement (see page 2). The merger will create the industry’s largest company and the dominant supplier for life science research. The deal brings together the industry’s largest […]

Company Announcements New Zealand–based ZyGEM, a provider of enzyme-based reagents, opened its US headquarters in Solana Beach, California, in January. Invitrogen was named the exclusive provider of fluorescent miRNA microarray labeling kits using Genispheres’ 3DNA dendrimer signal amplification technology. Sigma-Aldrich and MorphoSys AG will design, produce and distribute unique recombinant antibodies. In February, Exiqon A/S […]

Company Announcements The Fraunhofer IBMT will develop new, customized applications for Magritek’s Kea NMR Mole System and will provide technical support for them in Europe. The companies will also work together on future developments of the system. Product Introductions Chenomx released Chenomx NMR Suite 5.0, a set of integrated software applications for performing NMR-based metabolomics. […]

As the largest market for particle size and distribution analysis, the pharmaceutical industry accounted for approximately 15% of the sales of instruments and aftermarket products last year. Particle size is a crucial metric for the design, quality control and manufacturing of pharmaceuticals. In developing new drugs, researchers are increasingly exploring the use of nano-sized particles […]

The adoption of MALDI-TOF MS for imaging applications is a major recent development in the MALDI market. Such applications are leading to the rise in demand for sample preparation and data analysis software that are specific to MALDI imaging. Applications lie squarely in the life sciences area, primarily in histopathology. The market for MALDI imaging […]

Company Announcements In January, Axela signed a North American distribution agreement with VWR for its dotLab system and reagents. BioForce Nanosciences President and COO Kerry Frey was named president and CEO in January, and former CEO Eric Henderson was named to the newly created position of chief science officer. OpGen appointed Noel Doheny CEO in […]

Woburn, MA 4/1/08—BioTrove, a supplier of microfluidic-based laboratory instruments for genomic analysis, has filed with the SEC for an IPO of its common stock on the NASDAQ exchange. Pricing and timing details are yet to be determined. The company sells the Open Array system for multiplex PCR analysis in research and diagnostic applications, and the […]

Fourth-quarter sales for the Lab Equipment/Consumables Index gained 9.8% to $865 million, while operating profits improved 15.7% to $243 million. Operating margin for the same period improved 150 basis points to 28.1% of sales. For the year, Index sales rose 11.0% to $3,284 million, operating profits increased 20.3% to $700 million and operating margin jumped […]

Mobious, which is developing molecular resonance sequencing technology, joined the X Prize competition last year (see IBO 12/31/07). Covaris entered into a supply and distribution agreement with Applied Biosystems for its S2 sample preparation instrument system for use with Applied Biosystems’ SOLiD DNA sequencer. Microfluidics developer RainDance Technologies appointed Christopher McNary president and CEO. He […]