GE Healthcare and Geron announced this week that they are partnering to offer human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived assays for drug development and screening toxicity (see page 2). HESC-derived cell-based assays promise to supplement in vivo animal and in vitro cell testing for drug development. Applications could include target identification and validation, screening of compound […]

The six nations that make up the Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates) have formed a food safety and risk authority to evaluate and monitor health risks for food, animal and plant products using scientific data. The authority will work with risk management and food safety bodies in […]

San Diego, CA 6/10/09—Illumina has introduced a service program offering human genome sequencing with complete coverage for consumers at a price of $48,000. The service will be performed at Illumina’s CLIA (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments) certified laboratory. Illumina is also establishing a protocol, infrastructure and community for large-scale adoption of personal genome sequencing, including the […]

The incidence of cancer in the US is estimated to increase 45% between 2010 and 2030 to approximately 2.3 million people, according to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. A 67% increase in cancer in adults age 65 or older and a 99% increase in minorities are primarily responsible for the overall […]

Waltham, MA 6/11/09—PerkinElmer has announced a comarketing agreement with Rigaku Americas, a supplier of X-ray spectrometry, X-ray diffraction and X-ray optics. Under the agreement, the companies will share information and provide a single point of contact for PerkinElmer’s atomic spectroscopy solutions, which include atomic absorption spectrometers, ICP-OES (Inductively Coupled Plasma–Optical Emission Spectroscopy), ICP-MS and Rigaku […]

The European Commission has adopted specific rules for active and intelligent materials and articles intended to come into contact with food. The rules apply to substances that are part of a separate container or are directly incorporated into packaging material. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) will carry out the safety assessment of the substance […]

Microfluidics is not only useful in applications ranging from process chemistry to cell sorting, but is also a way to enter an established instrument market. Formulatrix began as a provider of the Rock Maker protein crystallography imaging system. The company has had 60% average growth in revenue since its start in 2002. It entered the […]

Redmond, WA 6/1/09—Microsoft has agreed to acquire certain assets of Rosetta Biosoftware from Merck & Co. Microsoft will incorporate the genetic, genomic, metabolomic and proteomic data management software into its Amalga Life Sciences platform for translational research. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Microsoft and Merck will also form a strategic relationship, under which […]

Updating its 2008 R&D survey (see IBO 12/31/08), Battelle and R&D Magazine now estimate that total R&D spending for 40 countries will grow 1.6% to $1.125 trillion this year, compared to the earlier estimate of a 3.2% increase. The update accounts for stimulus plans and the continuing recession. A survey of readers of four magazines […]