Company Announcements

Geneva Bioinformatics named GE Healthcare Life Sciences as its Latin American distributor.

Abbott has made an additional $20 million investment in Ibis Biosciences (see IBO 2/15/08), bringing its equity holding to 18.6%.

Thermo Fisher Scientific integrated its MS instrumentation with Genedata’s Genedata Expressionist software for metabolomics applications.

The Thermo Fisher Scientific Biomarker Research Initiatives in Mass Spectrometry Center is collaborating with the University Health Network in Toronto, which will use Thermo Scientific’s LTQ Orbitrap and Quantum Ultra MS systems to search for biomarker proteins in the secreted fluids of cancer cell lines.

Under a partnership agreement, users of Waters’ IdentityE High Definition proteomics system can bring data into Proteome Software’s Scaffold 2.1 visualization software.

BioTrove announced an exclusive alliance with Becton, Dickinson and Company, which will use BioTrove’s RapidFire Technology for MS-based screening and analysis as part of its CYP450 Inhibition Screening Service.

Agilent entered into a value-added reseller agreement with BioTrove, expanding the companies’ strategic alliance (see IBO 10/31/07). BioTrove will offer its RapidFire system integrated with Agilent’s triple quadrupole or time-of-flight LC/MS systems and atmospheric pressure ionization sources.

Product Introductions

Hitachi High Technologies America introduced the NanoFrontier eLD LIT-q-TOF (linear ion trap-q-time of flight) LC-MS System with electron capture dissociation.

Geneva Bioinformatics SA launched SmileMS 9.0, featuring the latest LC/MS/MS spectral library.

In October, Applied Biosystems and MDS Analytical Technologies introduced the AB SCIEX Triple Quad 5500, featuring faster scan speeds and the new AcQuRate pulse-counting detector for great sensitivity.

In October, Applied Biosystems and MDS Analytical Technologies launched the AB SCIEX QTRAP 5500, which integrates triple quadrupole technology with Linear Accelerator Trap ion trap technology, enabling the identification and confirmation of results in a single analysis, according to the companies.

Thermo Fisher Scientific released the Thermo Scientific ToxSpec Analyzer, a cost effective LC/MS solution for clinical and forensic toxicology-screening labs.

Sales/Orders of Note

In September, the FDA purchased seven of Applied Biosystems’ 4000 QTRAP Systems integrated with Cliquid Software for Food Testing for the analysis of potentially harmful pesticides in the US food supply. The systems will be deployed at seven separate locations.