Asuragen has licensed Roche's RT-qPCR (real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction) technology for clinical gene expression profiling and DNA analysis applications.
Combined with Asuragen's miRNA and mRNA profiling services the newly acquired rights will allow the company to test predictive biomarker signatures, efficiency markers and patient stratification tests during clinical drug trials.
"As our biopharmaceutical clients move their testing out of discovery and into clinical research and trials, Asuragen is proud to be the first pharmacogenomic service provider to offer qRT-PCR assays for pharmaceutical drug trials," stated Scott Hunicke-Smith, general manager of Asuragen Services.
bioMerieux and Compliance Software Solutions Corporation (CSSC) are collaborating to improve environmental monitoring for the pharmaceutical industry.
The agreement will enable bioMerieux to market CSSCs MIMS software package bundled with its VITEK 2 compact microbial identification system and offer a validated method of assessing and documenting microbial and particulate tests in pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities.
"The combination of CSSC's MIMS technology and bioMérieux's VITEK 2 Compact provides a complete data management solution for our customers in the pharmaceutical industry," said Alexandre Mérieux, corporate vice president of Industrial Microbiology at bioMerieux.
"Environmental testing is critical to the production of safe, high quality pharmaceuticals and we are pleased to partner with an industry leader such as CSSC."
Caliper Life Sciences has been awarded a $7m (€4.98m) contract from the US National Institute of Environmental Health Services (NIEHS) to develop customised transgenic and knock-out mice.
The mice will be used to identify and help prevent human exposure to hazardous substances and conditions.
"This contract is the second significant win for our services business in recent months, following the in vitro Environmental Protection Agency contract announced earlier in the second quarter," said Kevin Hrusovsky, CEO of Caliper Life Sciences.
"Our contract with the NIEHS builds on our existing relationship with this organisation and further validates the capabilities of our services organization and the increasing industry demand that is fuelling our growth."
Microfluidics expert Dolomite has appointed John Morris Scientific as its Australian distributor for microfluidic services.
"This appointment reflects the increasing level of interest we are experiencing around the world from customers interested in working with us to bring their microfluidic concepts to market," said Gillian Davis, commercial director of Dolomite.
"Appointing a technical company as experienced and capable as John Morris Scientific will be instrumental in helping to secure business and manage customer relations in this territory."
IDBS and Titian have agreed a strategic partnership to enable the companies to integrate IDBS' electronic laboratory notebook (ELN) applications with Titian's inventory management system to streamline customer workflow and increase screening efficiency, throughput and data integrity.
"Increasingly our customers have indicated a need for flexible inventory management. Our customers will benefit from the direct integration with ActivityBase, providing them with the best possible solution for managing their screening and discovery data," said Neil Kipling, CEO of IDBS.
Perlegen Sciences and Roche Diagnostics' 454 Life Sciences are collaborating to re-sequence hundreds of human DNA samples collected by Perlegen from individuals that exhibited specific responses to an unnamed, but widely prescribed class of drug.
The collaboration will try to determine whether sufficient genetic variation can be identified to create a clinical test that will predict patient response.
"We are pleased to be working with 454 in this landmark pharmacogenomic study that combines 454's exceptional next generation sequencing technology with Perlegen's expertise in defining genetic variation on a carefully selected sample set," commented Dr Bryan Walser, CEO of Perlegen Sciences.
"This study holds the promise to improve therapeutic outcomes for a vast number of patients."
Phytronix Technologies has signed a global distribution agreement with Thermo Fisher Scientific (TFS) enabling TFS to offer its laser diode thermal desorption (LDTD) ionisation system with its mass spectrometers (MS).
"For Phytronix Technologies, this major agreement confirms the global distribution of its LDTD technology as this industry giant in the field of life sciences will now offer LDTD as the new ionization technology on its mass spectrometers" said Jean Lacoursière, president of Phytronix.
The technology uses a laser diode to thermally desorb ions from a solid sample and introduce them directly to the mass spectrometer within a few seconds, increasing analysis speeds by up to 100 times compared to traditional liquid chromatography (LC) MS techniques.
Porvair Sciences has opened a new Class 10000 cleanroom at its Wrexham, UK facility in which its microplates will be manufactured.
"The new facility will improve delivery times for our customers whilst assuring them of the highest quality microplates for HTS, assays and storage - all produced from the highest quality polymers," said Steve Knight, sales and marketing manager at Porvair.
Sigma-Aldrich is to collaborate with the Institute of Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) at the Universite de Montreal to look for potential new drug targets using Sigma's Mission shRNA (short hairpin RNA) library.
The project is being funded by grants from Genome Quebec and Sigma-Aldrich.
"We are eager to work with the Universite de Montreal to provide researchers access to the Sigma-AldrichMission RNAi portfolio of products and intellectual property," said Dr David Smoller, president of Sigma-Aldrich's Research Biotechnology business unit.
"RNAi is becoming the leading technology used by researchers for the advancement of drug discovery, commitment to this technology by the University and the investment of Canadian government positions the facility to be a leader in this effort."
Thermo Fisher Scientific has acquired logistics provider Priority Solutions International (PSI) to strengthen its ability to support its clinical trials management services division.
PSI had 2006 revenues of approximately $95m and offers a comprehensive range of services for the delivery of FDA-regulated pharmaceuticals, patient samples and physician supplies.
"The addition of Priority Solutions will make our biopharma services business an even stronger partner for biotechnology and pharmaceutical customers who are increasingly looking to outsource clinical trials management," said Marijn Dekkers, CEO of Thermo Fisher Scientific.
"This acquisition brings tremendous logistics expertise and an infrastructure to our existing outsourcing services that strengthens our ability to deliver pharmaceutical supplies to the right people at the right time - anywhere in the world."
