Company Announcements

In March, the Irish Centre for Fetal and Neonatal Translational Research (INFANT) announced a research partnership with Waters. Waters will invest in the INFANT Centre at the University College Cork and will work with the Centre to develop a screening test to predict spontaneous preterm birth based on a blood-based biomarker.

Agilent Technologies announced in March its support for the National University of Singapore–led Lipidomic Natural Variation consortium, which aims to develop the world’s first lipid database for healthy persons of different racial and ethnic groups. Agilent is the consortium’s preferred technology partner.

In April, Agilent Technologies named Joshua Rabinowitz, MD, PhD, professor at Princeton University’s Department of Chemistry and the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, as the recipient of an Agilent Thought Leader Award to support his work on ion quantitative analysis of cellular metabolism.

Thermo Fisher Scientific and Harvard Medical School established in March the Thermo Fisher Scientific Center for Multiplexed Proteomics, headed by Dr. Steven Gygi, professor of cell biology, which will focus on advancing MS multiplexing technology for quantitative proteomics.

In April, Shimadzu announced the registration of the following systems as Class 1 medical devices with the FDA: the LC-20 CL and LC-30 CL HPLCs; the single-quadrupole LCMS 2020 CL; and the triple-quadruople LCMS-8030 CL, LCMS-8040 CL and LCMS-8050 CL.

Microsaic announced in April a precontract commercial agreement to provide its Microsaic 4000 MiD MS system on an OEM basis to a major health care–equipment company for exclusive marketing and sale as a stand-alone instrument for use in protein-separation applications. Shipments are expected to begin in the first quarter of 2015.

In April, SISCAPA Assay Technologies named Board Member Gustavo (Gus) Salem as president and CEO. He previously served as vice president and general manger of the Biological Systems Division at Agilent Technologies.

Product Introductions

In April, Waters released the Progenesis QI and Progeneis QI for Proteomics software packages for a broad range of proteomics, metabolomics and lipidomics applications. New features of Progenesis QI include fragment-ion support for compound identification.

AB SCIEX introduced in April in certain European countries the SCIEX IVD-MS Immunosuppressants Kit for immunosuppressant-drug monitoring. It is for use with the AB SCIEX IVD-MS Analyzer.

AB SCIEX launched in certain European countries the SCIEX IVD-MS Kit for Amino Acid and Acylcarnitines in Dried Blood Spots for use with the AB SCIEX 3200MD CE-marked IVD system for newborn screening.