Company Announcements

Microsaic Systems announced the CE marking of its 3500 MiD MS system.

Microsaic Systems CEO Alan Finlay stepped down in December 2011 and was temporarily replaced by Chairman Eric Yeatman until a replacement is found.

Thermo Fisher Scientific agreed in January to comarket PREMIER Biosoft’s SimGlycan software for the characterization of complex glycans using MS.

In January, Agilent Technologies and Integrated Diagnostics announced a strategic partnership to develop protein-based assays for early disease detection. Integrated Diagnostics purchased two Agilent 1290 Infinity UHPLC systems, two 6490 iFunnel triple quadrupole MS systems and two 1260 LCs with UV detectors.

Agilent listed its Infinity Series 1200 LC and 6000 Series MS as Class I medical devices with the FDA in January.

AB SCIEX and Indigo BioSystems agreed in January to jointly market their respective LC/MS solutions and ASCENT software for streamlining data acquisition and automating data review for clinical research, forensic toxicology, and preclinical and clinical trials of new drugs.

In February, AB SCIEX’s manufacturing facility in Singapore and R&D design center in Toronto, Canada, achieved ISO 13485 certification for its quality management system. ISO 13485 is an international standard related to medical device manufacturing.

For its expression MS system (see page 9), Advion appointed Universal Analytical and Testing Instruments as its exclusive distributor in China and Inkarp Instruments as its Indian distributor.

Waters recognized the Thomson Mass Spectrometry Laboratory at the Institute of Chemistry at Brazil’s University of Campinas as a Center of Innovation.

Abbott entered into an agreement with the University of North Texas Science Center to evaluate its PLEX-ID instrument for use in analyzing human remains to support missing persons and human trafficking investigations.

Abbott is collaborating with Genetics Laboratory to develop a molecular diagnostic test for use on the PLEX-ID system to rapidly detect micro-organisms that cause orthopedic infections.

Protea Biosciences announced in February a collaboration with the lab of Gary J. Van Berkel, PhD, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to explore the molecular structures of material surfaces.

Product Introductions

AB SCIEX launched in January new electrospray ionization electrodes for use with the Turbo V ionization source. The electrodes allow improved sensitivity, resolution and throughput with Eksigent microflow UHPLC systems. The company also released a new hardware kit for use with the EksigentHT-Ultra System that enables closer mounting of heated columns to the Turbo V systems.