Company Announcements

BioTek Instruments established a Japanese office, located in Tokyo, effective July 1. BioTek will continue to work with existing distributor Central Scientific Comm.

In July, Brooks Automation named Robyn C. Davis to its Board. She is managing director of AngelHealthcare Investors.

TTP Labtech announced that product sales increased more than 20% in 2012 and that it invested £3.8 million ($6.0 million) in R&D.

In August, Tecan named Dr. Achim von Leoprechting a member of its Management Board and head of the Partnering Business division, effective October 1. He previously served as vice president and general manager Europe, Middle East, Africa and India, at PerkinElmer.

Product Introductions

SCP Science released in March the EasyPREP robotic sample handler for sample preparation in inorganic chemical labs.

BMG LABTECH introduced the new CLAROstar multi-mode microplate reader, featuring LVF Monochromators, which have filter-like sensitivity and flexibility for fluorescence and luminescence assays, and a UV/Vis spectrometer that can scan the absorbance spectrum from 220 to 1000 nm at 1 nm resolution in less than one second.

Thermo Fisher Scientific launched the free-to-use, self-serve Thermo Scientific iAutomate, an online automation system configuration tool for automation set-up around the Thermo Scientific Orbitor RS plate mover.

In May, Hamilton Robotics introduced a new module for the Microlab STAR workstation that automates ELISAs and can process up to 10 plates with minimal hands-on time.

In June, Eppendorf launched the PlateReader AF2200, which is specifically designed for UV/Vis and fluorescence (top and bottom) reading in 6- to 384-well formats.

Freeslate released in June the CM Protégé PharmD System, an automated platform for high-throughput solid form and solubility screening. It can evaluate up to 384 crystallization conditions per run and utilizes approximately 1 g of active pharmaceutical ingredients per solid-form screen.

In September, Freeslate introduced the CM Protégé Bioformulation Assessment System, which automates visible particle detection, and pH and viscosity measurements.

Bio-Rad Laboratories launched in August the iQ-Check Prep automation system, a liquid handling platform for real-time PCR detection of food pathogens. It runs up to four different iQ-Check assays simultaneously.

Sales/Orders of Note

In May, Hamilton announced the shipment of its 5,000th Microlab STAR Line liquid handing platform to the Uppsala Biobank.