Life Science Consumables

Company Announcements

In January, MicroBioLogics acquired the assets of Gibson Laboratories, which supplies specialty media products, microorganisms, diagnostics and proficiency testing supplies. MicroBioLogics established a new subsidiary named Gibson Laboratories and will retain key members of Gibson’s management team.

Integrated DNA Technologies signed a license agreement with LI-COR Biosciences to manufacture oligos for sale using the LI-COR IRDye 700, IRDye 800 and IRDye 800CW infrared dyes. As of November 2008, LI-COR no longer manufactures custom IRDye-labeled oligos.

The Wisconsin State Journal reported in January that EMD Chemicals will close its Madison location, which manufactured test kits sold under the Novagen brand, by year end, affecting 70 workers. In total, EMD Chemicals expects to lay off 300 of its 1,100 US employees.

Cambridge Research & Instrumentation agreed to distribute VisEn Medical’s fluorescent imaging agents and labels in North America.

Genovis transferred its US-based logistical operations to Finnzymes in February.

CPC Scientific agreed to distribute Sigma-Aldrich’s PEPscreen custom peptide libraries in North America to life science researchers and pharmaceutical companies.

Promega and Celsis In Vitro Technologies agreed to co-market their respective bioluminescent ADME-Tox assays and cryopreserved plateable hepatocytes.

Product Introductions

Invitrogen released KNOCKOUT SR XenoFree Media for use in the culture of hESCs.

DiscoveRx introduced its HitHunter cAMP kits to North American markets in January.

Promega launched two Maxwell 16 Low Elution Volume DNA Purification Kits: one for sample types with low cell numbers and one for FFPE tissue sections.

GE Healthcare released the illustra triplePrep Kit for the simultaneous isolation of genomic DNA, RNA and total denatured protein from a single sample in less than one hour. It consists of two spin columns and six buffers for use with mammalian cell culture or animal tissue.

Caprotec bioanalytics GmbH launched its first caproKits, the SAH and cAMP caproKits, for small molecule–protein interactions. They are based on the company’s Capture Compound Mass Spectrometry technology.

Illumina launched new sequencing chemistry kits and software for its Genome Analyzer system, enabling the generation of 40% more reads per run and the extension of read lengths to greater than 75 bp. It also introduced the Mate Pair Library Preparation Kit, which provides support for generating longer insert paired-end libraries.

Sigma-Aldrich and Ingenuity Systems introduced Your Favorite Gene, a Web-based biological search portal for exploring dynamic gene-based content.

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