Company Announcements

Netherlands-based Hycult Biotechnology, a developer of antibodies and antibody-based products for innate immunity and directly related fields, opened a US subsidiary in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, in December 2010.

Akonni Biosystems initiated an $8 million equity offering in December 2010, according to an SEC filing.

Kreatech Diagnostic announced in January an additional license and supply agreement with Agilent.

EMD Millipore will transfer distribution of recombinant human insulin for cell culture media to the manufacturer, Novo Nordisk, effective May 1.

Product Introductions

EMD Millipore introduced three new MILLIPLEX MAP kits of validated, multiplexed immunoassays for measuring 21 biomarkers, including amyloid beta 1-40 and 1-42, serum amyloid P (SAP), total and phospho-Tau (Thr231), PARK7 and alpha synuclein.

EMD Millipore launched the Human Oligodendrocyte Differentiation Kit for the generation of human oligodendrocyte populations from neural progenitors in two to three weeks.

Cygnus Technologies and Radix Biosolutions released kits designed for compatibility with Gyros’ immunoassay platform, including kits for impurities testing.

Thermo Fisher Scientific introduced the Thermo Scientific Pierce TiO2 Phosphopeptide Enrichment and Clean-up Kit, featuring TiO2 Spin Tips that recover up to 300 mg of phosphopeptides.

Thermo Fisher Scientific launched the Thermo Scientific Pierce Kinase Enrichment Kits, which use ATP- and ADP-based probes developed by ActivX Biosciences.

SwitchGear Genomics released the LightSwitch Luciferase Assay System, a comprehensive reporter assay solution for measuring transcriptional activation and translational efficiency in living cells. It features GoClone reporter vectors that utilize a novel luciferase reagent.

Bioo Scientific launched the MaxSignal Melamine ELISA Kit for detection of melamine contamination in food and feed samples at concentrations as low as 0.2 ppm.

Akonni Biosystems introduced a TruTip kit for extraction of human genomic DNA from fresh or frozen whole blood. The nucleic acid–binding matrix is used with either a Rainin EDP 3-Plus pipette or an Eppendorf epMotion system and can be adapted to work with most other electronic pipettes and automated liquid handling systems.

In January, OriGene Technologies released 1,500 TrueMAB monoclonal antibodies, stating it had developed an assay for every human protein.

Cellectis bioresearch launched gene-specific TAL(1) nucleases for gene modification as a custom service.

Lonza and California Stem Cell introduced MotorPlate Human Embryonic Stem Cell–Derived Motor Neuron Progenitor products, seeded in 96-well plates.