Company Announcements

Sias announced in July that its cofounders and major shareholders, Clare Dench and Pius Fink, stepped down from management duties. The company also split its Commercial Operations division into a Customers and Markets division and a Development division.

Andrew Alliance opened an office in Boston, Massachusetts, in August.

Precision System Science (PSS) and Roka Bioscience entered into an OEM agreement in August under which PSS will develop and manufacture an automated molecular diagnostics system and disposables for food testing for Roka.

LGC agreed in August to exclusively distribute Douglas Scientific’s Array Tape Platform in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The Array Tape can be used with LGC’s KASP genotyping assays and reagents.

RayBiotech agreed to distribute SCIENION’s products in China.

In October, Hamilton Storage Technologies partnered with Askion to provide cryobiotechnology automated sample-management solutions. The partnership introduces Askion’s C-line portfolio to new markets, including North America and South America.

In November, Brooks Automation named Maurice “Dusty” Tenney III as president, Life Science Systems. He was previously senior vice president, Customer Operations, at PerkinElmer.

Product Introductions

BioTek Instruments launched in July the Epoch 2 Microplate Spectrophotometer with a spectral range of 200–99 nm. It combines a large touchscreen and full onboard data analysis software.

BioTek Instruments introduced in August the Synergy HTX Multi-Mode Microplate Reader, an entry-level reader to automate UV-Vis absorbance, fluorescence, luminescence and AlphaScreen/AlphaLISA assays in 6- to 384-well microplates.

Eppendorf released the new epMotion 96 for rapid liquid handling or 96 or 384 format microplates or deep-well plates. It features a volume range of 0.5–300 µL using one head or system.

In October, NanoScreen introduced the compact ORION Liquid Handling Workstation, a multiformat pipetting robot with a 12-position deck and many dispense head options.

Freeslate released the CM Protégé Reaction Optimization System for streamlining pharmaceutical chemical development. It features the Optimization Sampling Reactor technology for automation of eight reactions simultaneously.

In December, Brooks Life Science Systems launched the Brooks Tube Auditor 2.0, which audits a 96-tube rack in approximately 90 seconds.