Company Announcements

BioNanomatrix named Chairman Edward L. Erickson president and CEO, replacing Michael Boyce-Jacino.

Revenues for Scientific Digital Imaging for the six months ended October 31, 2009 grew 7.0% to £3.42 million ($5.5 million). Operating profit fell 72.2% to £75,000 ($0.1 million) (see IBO 1/31/10). Synoptics sales declined.

Life Technologies announced plans to dedicate $100 million over the next three years to address the challenge of bioinformatics for whole-genome sequencing.

In February, Oxford Nanopore Technologies raised £17.4 million ($28 million) in new funding.

Analytik Jena acquired the remaining 20% share in AJ eBiochip Gmbh for €80,000 ($111,000) in cash.

Product Introductions

Illumina introduced the HiSeq 2000 sequencing system, which currently generates two billion paired-end reads and 200 Gb of quality filtered data. In a single run, 30-fold coverage of two human genomes can be obtained for less than $10,000 per genome.

Illumina launched the Genome AnalyzerIIe, priced at $250,000, which currently generates approximately 200 million paired-end reads and 20 Gb of data per run.

454 Life Sciences introduced the REM e System, a robotic accessory module for liquid handling systems, which enables complete automation of emPCR enrichment for the GS FLX Titanium workflow.

Life Technologies introduced the Applied Biosystems SOLiD 4 Sequencing System for generating up to 100 Gb of mappable sequence data per run at a cost of $6,000 per genome. Later this year, the SOLiD 4 will be upgraded with the SOLiD 4hq package, which will generate 300 Gb of mappable sequence data per run for sequencing the highest quality whole genome for a cost of $3,000. Also launched was the EZ Bead System for automating sample preparation and the BioScope cloud-enabled software for SNP detection and transcriptome analysis.

QuantiScientifics launched the A2 MicroArray System with Universal Linker Technology, a microplate-based platform for the development of multiplex assays. QuantiScientifics acquired the technology from Beckman Coulter last year.

GE Healthcare launched the Biacore 4000 for large-scale, label-free molecular interaction analysis.

Sales/Orders of Note

Beijing Genomics Institute purchased 128 HiSeq 2000 sequencing systems from Illumina in January. Revenue will be recognized over the next three years.

Under a collaboration agreement, the Ignite Institute for Individualized Health will acquire 100 SOLiD 4 Systems from Life Technologies. Revenue will be recognized over the next three years.