Company Announcements

Arrayit sold its Avant Diagnostics subsidiary to American Liberty Petroleum in December 2014.

Fluidic Analytics announced in January that it raised $2.4 million in a Series A financing. The company has developed a chip-based technology for characterizing proteins’ sizes and concentrations.

Toxic Reports announced it January the acquisition of the assets of PathoGenetix (see IBO 10/31/14). It will begin manufacturing and selling the RESOLUTION Microbial Genotyping System late in the first quarter.

Agilent Technologies announced in January the approval of its SureScan Dx microarray scanner as a medical device for IVD use by the China FDA.

In February, Quanterix named Kevin Hrusovsky as CEO. He will continue to serve as chairman of the Board. Previously, he served as president of Life Sciences and Technologies at PerkinElmer.

Berthold Technologies announced a technology partnership with Biametrics, which develops solutions for label-free analysis of biointeractions. Berthold will offer the firm’s bScreen LB9 991 label-free microarray analyzer.

The University of Tübingen and Mediso entered into a collaboration to develop a whole-body preclinical PET insert based on silicon photomultiplier sensor technology. It will allow a PET ring to move inside a high-field MRI machine and acquire PET data during the MRI scan.

In an updated SEC filing (see IBO 12/31/14), HTG Molecular Diagnostics reported that 2014 sales grew 48.4% to $3.3 million. Product sales rose 132.0% to $1.8 million, with consumables representing 56% of product sales. Operating loss increased from $11.9 million to $12.8 million. As of December 31, 2014, the company had cash and cash equivalents of $3.6 million.

In March, NanoString Technologies named Robert Hershberg, MD, PhD, to its Board. Dr. Hershberg serves as senior vice president of Immuno-Oncology at Celgene and is founder, president and CEO of VentiRx Pharmaceuticals.

Luminex named Randall Myers as senior vice president, Global Manufacturing and Quality, in March.

Product Introductions

In January, Bio-Techne launched the Ella, the first member of its new Simple Plex platform. The launch is a rebranding of the acquired CyPlex instrument (see IBO 11/15/14).

Precision Biosystems launched the Qsep100 DNA Analyzer, which uses microcapillary gel electrophoresis combined with fluorescence detection. It features a low cost per sample and rapid analysis time.

HTG launched the HTG EdgeSeq Oncology Biomarker Panel for profiling the expression of over 2,500 oncology-related biomarkers. It is designed for use with the HTG EdgeSeq system.