According to “Public Support for Science and Innovation,” a new report by Australia’s Productivity Commission, the Australian government budgeted an estimated AUD 5.974 billion ($4.492 billion) for science and innovation in 2006–07. Major government research agencies accounted for 23% of funding, including the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, which recieved AUD 607.2 million, making […]

Investment in US refineries is on the upswing due to increased profitability. Driven by higher oil prices, rising demand and years of underinvestment, US refining margins remain healthy. According to Wood Mackenzie, US demand for gas is forecasted to outpace supply over the next three years due, in part, to shutdowns of refineries, as upgrades […]

Company Announcements Affymetrix promoted James Gibson, vice president of accounting and corporate controller, to principal accounting officer in December 2006. In January, Illumina signed a collaborative agreement with the Mayo Clinic to codevelop molecular diagnostic tests for the study of complex diseases. Partek’s Genomics Suite achieved GeneChip-compatible status for analysis of SNP association studies using […]

College Station, TX 3/23/07—William W. Botts, president and CEO of OI Corporation, has resigned following the completion of an investigation by a special committee into the company’s stock option practices (see IBO 1/31/07). The special committee reviewed stock option grants issued between 1985 and 2006 and found incidences of misdated option grants, the issuance of […]

Simulated moving bed chromatography (SMB) is a variation of conventional liquid chromatography, which provides continuous chromatographic separations, as opposed to batch separations, which account for the majority of chromatography systems. For the most part, the use of SMB in the laboratory is tied to a narrow scope of industrial applications, for which it offers a […]

Integromics SL, a provider of software solutions for genomic and proteomics data management and analysis, joined Microsoft’s BioIT alliance in November 2006. Text-mining software company Clarabridge joined Microsoft’s BioIT alliance in January. Bioinformatics provider CLC bio became a member of Microsoft’s BioIT alliance in January. Thermo Fisher Scientific joined Microsoft’s BioIT alliance in January. GNI […]

PREMIER Biosoft released SimGlycan for predicting the structure of a glycan from mass spectrometry data. Biber Technologies launched FirstAlight ERP Laboratory Software for the small to medium-sized lab. TAL Technologies released WinWedge Pro 4.0 for interfacing RS232 and TCP/IP devices, such as lab equipment and instruments, to any Windows application. CLC bio released the CLC […]

Numerous new products are introduced each year at Pittcon. However, Pittcon is not what it used to be for product introductions (see page 4). Thus, while IBO always has plenty of new products to choose from for its annual pick of the top product introductions at the show, Pittcon is not the first exhibition for […]