Company Announcements

BioTrove announced a research collaboration with Constellation Pharmaceuticals.

Under a coexclusive distributor agreement, Cisbio Bioassays will offer BioTrove’s RapidFire MS screening service as a label-free detection method for assay development and drug screening.

NextGen spun out its automation and software business in December 2008 to form eXeTek, which is led by two former employees. NextGen acquired a 24% stake in the company.

The Automation Partnership appointed CFO David Newble as CEO, effective next month.

BioTek Instruments opened a UK office that will focus on the company’s direct UK presence and support the efforts of Thermo Fisher UK related to BioTek’s products.

In January, Tecan announced it will use ARTEL’s Multichannel Verification System to check the precision of its liquid handling platforms at the request of customers.

Product Introductions

Zinsser Analytic launched the SOPHAS Pep workstation for automated peptide synthesis from the preparation of the resins through cleavage of the final product.

CyBio AG introduced the CyBi-Drop for the stress-free and homogeneous dispensing of cells.

CyBio AG released the CyBi-8plus1 pipetting instrument for the automation of PCR and sequencing set-ups and dilution series.

The Automation Partnership launched the Cellmate Mk6 automated cell culture systems, its sixth generation Cellmate system. Cellmate has over 80 installations.

The Automation Partnership introduced the Coda high-throughput nanoliter plate production system.

Scienion AG and Matrical Bioscience introduced the sciSWIFTER for dispensing up to 16 different substances in parallel in ranges of 100 pL–100 µL. It can operate as a stand-alone device, and its disposable pen technology allows for preparation, storage, sonication and dispensing.

PerkinElmer released the MicroBeta2 Liquid Scintillation counter for radiometric detection and the luminescence reader, featuring a choice of multiple detectors with two reagent dispensing heads per detector.

PerkinElmer introduced the EnSpire family of multilabel plate readers: the EnSpire quad monochromator-based detection platform for UV/Absorbance and fluorescence intensity; the EnSpire Alpha for use with PerkinElmer’s ALPHA technology; and the EnSpire AlphaPLUS for ALPHA technology and ELISAs.

MDS Analytical Technology launched the six-channel and two-channel versions of the SpectraMax L microplate luminometer, a new multiple photomultiplier-based platform for microplate luminometers. The two-channel instrument reads flash and glow luminescence and enables BRET asssays.