Company Announcements

Oxford Gene Technology (OGT) and Optra Systems are developing software to visualize and analyze data from high-resolution scanners.

In March, OGT acquired Sense Proteomic, which uses its protein array platform to identify autoantibody signatures for biomarker discovery.

Gentel will use Eprogen’s ProteoSep protein fractionation technique to create whole-proteome microarrays from individual cell lines or tissue samples.

Agilent appointed Asuragen a certified service provider (CSP) for its comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) and miRNA microarrays.

Agilent named the Research Institute at National Children’s Hospital a CSP for aCGH and gene expression.

SciGene granted Inter Medico exclusive rights to sell its products in Canada.

Aushion Biosystems announced in March that it received $6.5 million in additional financing, led exclusively by North Bridge Venture Partners.

ArrayIt will collaborate with the Parkinson’s Institute to discovery biomarkers using its H25K microarray.

In April, Roche NimbleGen and Sigma-Aldrich announced a collaboration for chromatin immunoprecipitation-on-microarray research, utilizing their respective microarray and GenomePlex amplification technologies. They will publish protocols, provide technical support and comarket their products.

Golden Helix will provide software tools and services for Agilent CNV microarrays.

In May, Affymetrix named Gary S. Guthart, PhD, to its Board. He is president and COO of Intuitive Surgical.

Product Introductions

Agilent introduced its SurePrint G3 Microarrays, its third-generation microarrays, which contain up to one million probes. They are available in four standard formats: one single million-feature array per slide, 2x400K, 4x180K and 8x60K. Agilent also introduced a 2x400K Copy Number Variation (CNV) catalog array.

Agilent released the Human CNV Association 2x105K microarray based on a design by the Wellcome Trust Case Consortium. Agilent also introduced the Genomic High-Throughput Universal Linkage System Labeling Kit based on Kreatech’s technology, and the Genome DNA 96-Well Purification Module.

Affymetrix launched an miRNA solution for miRNA coverage of 71 organisms on a single array. It consists of the GeneChip miRNA Array, miRNA QC tool software and Genisphere’s FlashTag Biotin RNA Labeling Kit.

In March, Affymetrix introduced its next-generation Affymetrix Cytogenetics Solution, which includes the Cytogenetics Whole-Genome 2.7M Array, the Cytogenetics Focused Array, and the new simplified and streamlined Cytogenetics Assay.