Company Announcements

Diffinity Genomics signed in November 2011 a distribution agreement with Sigma-Aldrich for the RapidTip for PCR Purification product line.

Denator named three new distributors: Bio-xplorer International for China, Bosung Scientific for Korea and GenDiscovery Biotechnology for Taiwan.

In December 2011, Pressure BioSciences announced a distribution agreement with IUL Instruments for Germany and Switzerland.

Pressure BioSciences entered into a comarketing, selling and R&D agreement with Digilab.

Agilent Technologies named the National Center for Genome Resources as a Certified Service Provider for the Agilent SureSelect Target Enrichment System.

In January, Techcomp began distribution of Questron Technologies’ microwave digestion systems in China.

Product Introductions

Illumina introduced new Nextera Sample Preparation Kits for the MiSeq sequencer for sample preparation in 90 minutes.

Life Technologies launched the Ion Xpress Plus Fragment Library Kit, which is a new Ion Torrent enzymatic shearing kit for library preparation in two hours.

RainDance Technologies and Sony DADC released in October 2011 the single-use, microdroplet-based HeatWave TS chip for use on the RDT ThunderStorm System. It features layered microfluidic channels on a polymer chip.

NuGEN Technologies and Life Technologies launched the Encore NGS (next-generation sequencing) Library Systems for library construction, which does not require specialized equipment to perform size selection. The Systems are available from Life Technologies.

Agilent Technologies in November 2011 released the 2200 TapeStation and ScreenTape consumables for NGS sample and library quality control. The system is compatible with 16-tube strip vials and 96-well plates.

Omni International launched the Omni LH96, which combines a homogenizing platform with a fully integrated liquid handling option, bar code reader option and automatic sample weighing option.

In January, Thermo Fisher Scientific introduced the SOLA range of solid phase extraction cartridges and plates, which combine polyethylene frit materials and stationary phase components into one uniform entity. They are available in SOLA (reverse phase), SOLA CX (mixed-mode cation exchange) and SOLA AX (mixed mode anion exchange) stationary phases.

Sage Science released the Blue Pippin DNA Size Selection System, which allows for the collection of DNA fragments up to 50 kb pairs.

Fluidigm launched the Access Array Barcode Library for the Ion Torrent Personal Genome Machine.