Company Announcements Luminex and Tyson Foods are collaborating to develop food-safety and animal-health tests. In February, Invitrogen expanded its license and supply agreement with Luminex, extending the lifetime of the license and providing it with access to next-generation multiplex detection platforms. Invitrogen offers more than 200 assays based on Luminex’s xMAP Technology. In February, Sigma-Aldrich gained exclusive rights to distribute Atlas Antibodies’ Prestige Antibodies to the proteomics and cell biology research communities in the US and all regions outside of Europe, where it was granted co-exclusive rights. Sigma-Aldrich named Helge Bastian, PhD, vice president of Global Marketing for the Research Biotech business unit in February. Previously, he was executive vice president of SGS’s Life Science Services business unit. Sigma-Aldrich licensed a marker from NeuroSurvival Technologies for molecular imaging of apoptosis in vitro and in vivo in animals. Sigma-Aldrich manufactures and markets the marker as Apo-TRACE. In February, QIAGEN NV opened its first Asian-Pacific Service Solution Center in Singapore. The company also opened DX Assay, a joint venture for diagnostics with Bio*One Capital, in Singapore in December 2007. In March, Source Bioscience (formerly Medical Solutions) acquired Autogen Bioclear, a UK-based distributor of life science research and diagnostics products, for €6 million ($11.7 million) in cash. Autogen Bioclear’s fiscal 2007 revenues grew 10% to €2.7 million ($5.2 million). Invitrogen launched the nonprofit philanthropic Invitrogen Foundation in February. ReachBio will exclusively distribute Axiogenesis AG’s tissue-specific cells, which are derived from mouse embryonic stem cell lines, in North America. Product Introductions SoluLinK released the ChromaLink Biotin Labeling Kit to biotinylate and measure with one reagent. In February, Applied Biosystems introduced the 8plex version of the iTRAQ line of labeling chemistry reagents. Beckman Coulter released the Agencourt Chloropure System for plant material. EMD Chemicals, a Merck KGaA subsidiary, launched WideScreen EpiTag ERK Pathway bead-based, multiplex assays for the xMAP Technology platform. Agilent introduced the High Sensitivity Protein 250 Kit for the 2100 Bioanalyzer. Thermo Fisher Scientific released the AdvanceSTEM Adipogenic Differentiation Kit. Thermo Fisher Scientific introduced Seradyn Sera-Mag SpeedBeads NeutrAvidin magnetic particles. QIAGEN introduced the CompactPrep Plasmid Mega and Giga kits, featuring a vacuum-driven protocol.