Company Announcements

In September, Verinata Health announced a three-year supply agreement to purchase Illumina’s HiSeq 2000 instruments and consumables for use in the commercialization of noninvasive prenatal testing for the detection of multiple aneuploidies. The companies will also collaborate on gaining regulatory approval for the testing service.

In October, Illumina entered into a collaborative research agreement with the Institute of Applied Genetics and the Department of Forensics and Investigative Genetics at the University of North Texas Health Science Center for the research, development, validation and implementation of practical assays for forensic identification using sequencing technology.

Pacific Biosciences appointed Michael J. Glynn chief commercial officer in October. Previously, he served as regional president, Japan–Asia Pacific and senior vice president at Genzyme.

Courtagen Life Sciences raised $8 million in new funding, according to SEC documents filed in October.

BioNanomatrix changed its name to BioNano Genomics in October.

Product Introductions

Silicon Kinetics launched a seamless fluidic/pressure interface for in-line coupling of its SKi Pro biosensor instrument with MS for the affinity capture-MS applications.

In October, UVP introduced the new ChemiDoc-It Imager for imaging chemiluminescent, fluorescent, colorimetric and multiplex gels and blots. It features an integrated computer and touch screen.

Sequenom launched in October the iPLEX ADME PGx panel. It contains a set of predesigned SNPs, insertions and deletions, and copy number variation assays that enable the analysis of 192 polymorphisms across 36 genes.

Protein Simple released the iCE3 platform for quality control of protein-based therapeutics, featuring redesigned fluid paths and new automation options.

In October, Illumina launched the BaseSpace customizable cloud-computing products for its MiSeq sequencer.

For its Ion Torrent sequencer, in October, Life Technologies released a 1 Gb dataset on the new Ion 318 chip, which will ship by the end of the year. The company also announced that it will seek 510(k) clearance for the sequencer in 2012.

NanoString Technologies introduced in October its second-generation nCounter Analysis System, which has a 50% greater throughput and features the nSolver software for the easy transfer of results to third-party software.

OpGen launched in October Genome-Builder, a software module for its Argus Whole Genome Mapping System. It orients long sequence scaffolds to provide a new level of assembly completion and allows the detection of structural rearrangements at higher resolution than traditional cytogenetic techniques.