Company Announcements

In June, Bruker amended its exclusive distribution agreement with Francisco Soria Melguizo for the MALDI Biotyper to include Portugal as well as Spain. Francisco Soria Melguizo has placed 20 systems since 2009.

Bruker and the University of Zurich’s Institute of Medical Microbiology (IMM) are collaborating on the study of coryneform bacteria, actinomycetes, fastidious gram-negative bacteria and molds using the MALDI Biotyper.

In June, Thermo Fisher Scientific announced that, as part of a collaboration with the UK’s Health Protection Agency, the Thermo Scientific LTQ Orbitrap MS was used to identify the protein toxins expressed by the E. coli strain responsible for the European outbreak.

In August, SmartGene and the University of Zurich’s IMM expanded their collaboration to validate and back up MS analysis for the identification of infectious pathogens in diagnostic routine procedures.

Under an August collaboration agreement, GE Healthcare’s Smart Asset Management Services customers in North America will have the option for full on-site service and maintenance support of AB SCIEX MS systems.

In July, Shimadzu signed a joint research agreement with the University of Tokyo to develop lipidomic technology for biomarker discovery.

In August, Waters recognized the Center for Proteomics at the Translational Genomics Research Institute as a Waters‘s Center of Innovation.

In August, INFICON acquired Adixen Scandinavia, a provider of hydrogen leak detectors, from Pfeiffer Vacuum.

Agilent announced in September that its LC/MS systems are now manufactured under ISO 13485 certification, a standard for the design and manufacture of medical devices.

Product Introductions

PREMIER Biosoft released in May the SimGlycan 3.0 MS data analysis tool for glycan and glycopeptide structure elucidation, which now includes support to identify glycopeptides from complex glycoprotein mixtures.

In July, Waters announced CE marking for its MassTrak Immunosuppressants XE Kit. The Kit is only available in the European Economic Area and Switzerland.

Ibis Biosciences, an Abbott business, introduced a non-diagnostic Vector-borne test for use on the PLEX-ID system. The test can identify protozoa, bacteria and nematodes in a wide range of specimen types.

In August, Advanced Chemistry Development released Spectrus software that is compatible with LECO’s High Resolution TOF MS system.

In September, Bruker released the PRIME (Proteomics via Integrated MALDI and ESI) top-down based workflow for biomarker discovery and identification, featuring the new GlycoQuest database.