Company Announcements

Agilent granted imaGenes GmbH the status of Certified Service Provider for Expression Profiling Services.

Agilent named Turku Center for Biotechnology of University of Turku and Abo Akademi University a Certified Service Provider for gene expression microarrays.

Affymetrix entered into a distribution agreement for Biotique Systems’ XRAY gene expression analysis software.

Under a collaboration agreement, the Center for Proteomic & Genomic Research, a South African government–sponsored nonprofit, will become a reference center for CapitalBio’s microarray applications in southern Africa, including applications for tuberculosis strain typing and drug resistance testing.

In October, CapitalBio entered into a strategic partnership with VigeneTech, which will create customized OEM software for integration with CapitalBio’s LuxScan microarray scanners for protein array analysis.

Oxford Gene Technology granted BF-BIOlabs a license to its Southern array patents for custom-made microarrays for gene identification, SNP and gene expression analysis.

In October, Denmark’s Medical Prognosis Institute gained access to Affymetrix technology to develop drug sensitivity prediction and prognostic products for cancer patients.

TeleChem International and BioSystems International SAS are developing a human proteome–profiling microarray using BioSystems’ PlasmaScan antibody libraries.

Product Introductions

LabCentrix released Affinity for Affymetrix, a preconfigured Thermo Scientific Nautilus LIMS for Affymetrix customers. LabCentrix is a Thermo Scientific Channel Partner and authorized reseller.

Agilent introduced the Agilent GeneSpring GX 10.0 gene expression bioinformatics platform, featuring systems-level data interpretation and pathway analysis. It is the result of a collaboration with Strand Life Sciences.

In September, Affymetrix launched the GeneTitan System, a platform for automating the workflow from target preparation through array processing and data analysis, featuring 24- and 99-array plate formats. The first application released is for whole genome expression profiling.

In October, Oxford Gene Technology introduced the Universal Prokaryotic high-density oligonucleotide microarrays, featuring multiple arrays per slide.

Roche NimbleGen launched comparative genomic hybridization arrays and services based on its 2.1 million–probe HD2 platform.

In November, Roche NimbleGen introduced HD2 arrays and services for ChIP-chip, including the Human Deluxe Promoter array and whole genome tiling sets for human, mouse, rat, D. melanogaster and C. elegans.