Breaking News on Laboratory Equipment

Company Profile: Nikon Instruments

LabTechnologist.com brings you an exclusive interview with Robert Forster, General Manager of Nikon UK's Instrument Division.

Product news in brief - week 39

LabTechnologist.com brings you a round up of product news and new releases from Bio-Rad, FEI, GE Healthcare, Harvard Apparatus, Horiba Instruments, Malvern Instruments, Thermo Fisher Scientific and Warner Instruments.

Waters and Thar collaborate for greener separations

Waters and Thar Instruments have agreed to deepen their collaboration to combine their strengths in mass spectrometry (MS) and super critical fluid chromatography (SFC) to make separation science 'greener'.

EU to fund stem cell assay development collaboration

Stem Cell Sciences (SCS) has received a €2.4m boost from the European Union (EU) for its new drug screening development programme using neutral stem cells.

Plexera and MitoSciences to develop ADME/Tox arrays

Plexera and MitoSciences will collaborate to commercialise an antibody array designed to study mitochondrial function that could become an integral part of ADME/Tox (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicology) screening.

Industry news in brief - week 39

LabTechnologist.com brings you its periodic round up of industry news, with new developments at Agilent, Celera, Eppendorf, GATC Biotech, ThalesNano and Warwick Analytical Services.

Ventana continues to brush off Roche's advances

Roche's latest takeover bid extension has been brushed off by histopathology diagnostics expert Ventana as it believes 'it is worth significantly more' than the current $3bn (€2.1bn) offer.

ProImmune launches T cell antigen prediction assay

ProImmune has launched a new cell-free assay for Class II HLA (human leukocyte antigen) that can help understand key helper T cell immune responses and aid the design of highly targeted therapies.

Wyatt lights up protein aggregation

Wyatt Technologies has launched a new instrument that automates protein aggregation measurement for use in all areas of the pharmaceutical industry from drug development to quality control (QC).

DSM takes on purification tech

Netherlands-based DSM has invested an undisclosed sum in Danish purification technology company Upfront Chromatography to boost its protein separation business.

Sanofi imaging cancer drug 'sensors'

Sanofi-Aventis is using the latest targeted imaging techniques to assess how its cancer drugs affect organisms at the molecular level.

Chairman to step down as Whatman's profits plunge

UK-based separations expert Whatman has seen operating profits for the first six months of 2007 plummet nearly 30 per cent on the back of a 'weak order book' and an inability to fulfil orders.

3D scaffold elevates drug screening results

UK researchers have developed a plastic cell scaffold that enables cells to be grown in realistic 3D structures and promises to enable better cell based drug screening results.

Agilent and ABI settle over PCR patents

Applied Biosystems (ABI) has successfully protected more of its PCR (polymerase chain reaction) patents with Agilent agreeing to license its thermal cycler technology.

Product news in brief - week 38

LabTechnologist.com brings you its round up of product news, with new release from Bio-Rad, ESA Biosciences, Guava, Nanosphere, Porvair, Schott Nexterion and Warsash Scientific.

Handheld mass spectral analysis

US researchers are continuing to push the boundaries of mass spectrometry (MS) with the development of a new handheld device that can analyse liquids and solids.

Arcxis accelerates DNA preparation

US-based Arcxis Biotechnologies has launched a new device to enable automated nucleic acid preparation from up to eight biological samples in 15 minutes.

Industry news in brief - week 38

LabTechnologist.com brings you a round up of recent industry news, with developments at Becton, Dickinson & Co., Celera, Indivumed, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Third Rock Ventures, Vermillion and Waters.

Tracing protein receptors on cells

Researchers from the Old Dominion University in Virginia, US, have developed a method of detecting individual protein receptors on the surface of cells.

Nanogen to shutter microarray business?

US-based diagnostics manufacturer Nanogen is considering selling off or closing down its microarray business in a bid to achieve profitability.

Caliper increases gene expression analysis throughput

Caliper Life Sciences has launched a new high throughput (HT) microfluidic assay that automates RNA quality and concentration assessment for gene expression analysis.

FDA and Gene Logic to set genomic industry standards

The FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) and Gene Logic are to collaborate in developing a set of industry standards for genomic data sent to the regulator.

ZS Genetics puts DNA under the microscope

ZS Genetics has signed up outside academic assistance to speed up development of its 'revolutionary' microscopy-based genetic analysis technology platform.

TEAM microscope breaks the angstrom barrier

A new TEM (transmission electron microscope) developed by the TEAM project has achieved 'the highest resolution images ever recorded' using the technique.

Product news in brief - week 37

LabTechnologist.com brings you its round of recent product releases, with new offerings from Affymetrix, ATTC, BTX, KD Scientific, Illumina, Micronic, Seegene and Warner Instruments.

Marksman Cellject device automates zebrafish injection for drug screening

A group of Canadian scientists have developed a technique to automatically inject material such as DNA or experimental drugs into individual cells, to use in drug screening.

Cellectricon delivers genome-wide RNAi screening system

Swedish cell-based screening expert Cellectricon has placed the world's first high throughput (HT) genome-wide RNAi screening system at a beta-test site for evaluation.

Industry news in brief - week 37

LabTechnologist.com brings you its round up of industry news, with new developments at Applied Biosystems, Empire Genomics, NanoSight, Q Chip, Thermo Fisher Scientific and Vermillion.

Imaging protease activity

US researchers have developed a molecular probe that can light up tumour cells within living animals and enable direct imaging of cysteine protease activity.

Enzo appeals as patent claims against ABI dismissed

Enzo Biochem has lodged an appeal after its patent infringement claims against Applied Biosystems (ABI) were dismissed on Friday in a summary judgement.

AstraZeneca to help Biovator replace in vivo allergy testing

AstraZeneca (AZ) is to assist Biovator in the development of its in vitro test for identifying potential allergens that could replace many experiments on animals.

Cisbio to brighten screening technology

Cisbio has entered into a partnership agreement with Lumiphore to gain access to new fluorescence reporter molecules for use in its high throughput (HT) screening assays.

Product news in brief - week 36

LabTechnologist.com brings you its round up of latest product news, with releases from 3Prime, Applied Biosystems, Millipore, Olympus, Roche/454, Symbion and Thermo Fisher Scientific.

eMolecules opens the ChemGate for spectral access

eMolecules launched a new web-based database, ChemGate, that contains over 700,000 spectra that Wiley-VCH has collected for over 500,000 molecules.

Anasys enables point and click local thermal analysis

Anasys Instruments has launched the world's first easy-to-use local thermal analyser which promises to help pharmaceutical companies' quality control (QC) of drug coatings and formulations.

Weekly Comment

UK gets go-ahead for hybrid embryo research

Eight months after the debate started over whether hybrid embryo research should be allowed in the UK, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has given researchers the thumbs up - but only on a case-by-case basis.

IonGate and LIVC to push screening to the next level

High-throughput (HT) screening expert IonGate will assist start-up LIVC with the development and marketing of its novel light-activated ion channel switching technology.

Zebrafish used to catch heart data

A contract research organisation (CRO) is offering a unique toxicity screening service using zebrafish as a model for assessing drug effects on cardiac function.

Millipore targets arthritis research efficiency

Millipore has released a new kit that allows researchers to quickly generate arthritis mouse models for screening and evaluating anti-inflammatory therapeutics.

Industry news in brief - week 36

LabTechnologist.com brings you a round up of the latest supplier news, with developments at Applera, Biosite, University of Glasgow, Farfield, Oxford Instruments and Tescan.

Entelos snaps up Iconix, adds safety to efficacy prediction

Entelos has decided to upgrade its computational models that predict drug responses in 'virtual patients' by snapping up a toxicology specialist.