Internal Medicine

At the recent ASMS Conference on Mass Spectrometry, held in San Antonio, Texas, Ciphergen Biosystems introduced the new Deep Proteome Research Services that bring the company’s Equalizer technology to biomarker discovery and identification.

Although it did not disclose the terms of the transaction, Novasite Pharmaceuticals in mid-June announced the acquisition of Boston, Mass.-based PsyCheNomicS, a drug discovery company focused on diseases of the central nervous system (CNS).

Sweden

After the acquisition of TekCel, Magellan Biosciences indirectly continues to expand its automation instrument empire as TekCel announces its acquisition of ultra-low-temperature sample-management specialist Biophile, Inc., based in Charlottesville, Virginia. Biophile's systems are used for temperature-sensitive work involving DNA, tissue, and tumor storage, and complement the automation systems already in play at TekCel and Magellan Bioscience.

Neurologix, Inc. has licensed the humanin gene from Keio University in Tokyo, an agreement providing Neuro-logix exclusive worldwide rights (excluding Japan) to develop and commercialize therapeutics to treat brain and other central nervous system (CNS) disorders (excluding amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) using the technology. The humanin gene will be used in combination with Neurologix’s proprietary gene transfer technology and is expected to be the company’s lead compound for a novel and promising approach to Alzheimer’s disease.

Health Discovery Corp. may not hold all the cards when it comes to marketing and development of support vector machine (SVM) technology—the likely successor to neural networks. But it certainly has come very close with the recent completion of its acquisition of an extensive SVM patent portfolio previously owned by BioWulf Technologies and BioWulf Genomics.

The results of a four-year sponsored research program with the University of New Hampshire (UNH) Nanostructured Polymers Research Center came to fruition in early May when Bentley Pharmaceuticals announced its new Nanocaplet technology.

Chemicon International Inc., a subsidiary of Serologicals Corp., has expanded its exclusive worldwide agreement with Amrad Corp Ltd and The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) of Medical Research.

The National Center for Drug Screening (NCDS) here and Cellomics Inc. of Pittsburgh have added to their strategic collaboration aimed at expanding the application of High Content Screening (HCS) technologies in China.

Elsevier MDL, a provider of cheminformatic solutions to the pharmaceutical and life-sciences industries, recently launched a dedicated, phased program to build a robust, scalable, enterprise-strength electronic laboratory notebook (ELN) built on MDL’s Isentris technology and scheduled for delivery in 2006.

Whatman Inc., has expanded its reach into the drug discovery market and DNA purification with the recent introduction of the EasyClone 384 plate, which replaces traditional freezer-storage methods and allows biotechnology, pharmaceutical, government and academic research labs to archive, ship and purify clones at room temperature.

Solexa Inc. recently raised $32.5 million in private equity financing, the bulk of which will be used to fund further development and commercialization of a synthesis-by-sequencing (SBS) molecular array platform for genetic analysis.