Tools & Techniques

NEWTON, Mass.—Securing what it termed the largest Advanced Technology Program (ATP) grant for the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST), Clinical Data and IO Informatics recently announced an agreement to partner on the final two years of a project that is designed to develop software and technology to interpret disparate data for researchers taking a systems biology approach to drug discovery.

NEW YORK– In a move to separate disparate business activities, Medis Technologies is spinning off its CellScan work into a new entity called Cell Kinetics Ltd. Cell Kinetics will commercialize equipment for monitoring living cells in combination with chemotherapeutic drugs, and Medis will continue developing fuel cells.

DUBLIN, California—In early January, Eksigent Technologies announced it had signed a distribution agreement with Applied Biosystems under which Applied Biosystems would offer a line of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) systems based on Eksigent’s liquid handling technology integrated with Applied Biosystems/ MDS Sciex mass spectrometers.

CARRBORO, N.C.—BioMachines Inc. a biotech automation company announced last month that Clearview Limited acquired a majority stake in the company and with it the hiring two new executive leaders for the company.

Eidogen-Sertanty Inc., a computational drug discovery solutions provider, in mid-December announced a collaboration with fellow San Diego-based company, Kalypsys Inc., that is focused on the discovery of novel small molecules for anti-inflammatory indications.

In January, PerkinElmer Inc. (PKI) announced the appointment of Dr. Karl Hecker as director of R&D for its Boston-based Center of Excellence. Hecker comes to PKI from Invitrogen and brings over 20 years of scientific experience in chemistry and biochemistry applications. Executive Editor Randall C Willis recently spoke with Hecker about his new role at PKI and the industry in general.

Sage-N Research Inc., the maker of the Sorcerer analysis appliance and the SEQUEST Sorcerer system marketed by Thermo Electron Corp., plans to establish a research and development center in the New Science Park in Shanghai, China. “The field has been prolific in developing new proteomics data analysis algorithms, but the challenge is to deliver them promptly to the researchers who need them, in a form that is easy to use, even for large data sets,” says David Chiang, CEO and chairman of Sage-N. “The new Sage-N Shanghai Center will extend the company’s previous successes in doing this.”

Adding another U.S. feather to its cap, De Novo Pharmaceuticals announced a collaborative agreement with Cambridge, Mass.-based biotech Genzyme that will see the U.K. company apply its proprietary molecular modeling system, SkelGen, to identify potential lead compounds against a Genzyme target. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

The patients may not be real, but the results are—and so is the U.S. patent No. 6,983,237 recently issued to Entelos Inc. and titled “Method and Apparatus for Conducting Linked Simulation Operations Utilizing a Computer-Based System Model.” Making that mouthful a bit simpler, Entelos has successfully patented its invention of a key technology to effectively develop and use virtual patients—in silico representations of actual patient subpopulations—to rapidly assess the safety and efficacy of drugs in humans.

In early January PerkinElmer announced it signed a long-term licensing agreement with Austin, Texas-based Luminex Corp. for its multiplex bioassay technology called xMAP. PerkinElmer intends to use xMAP for products ranging from biomarker panels for pharmaceutical development and ADME/Tox to in vitro diagnostics in maternal, neonatal and prenatal health. PerkinElmer also plans to standardize its multiplex assay development on the Luminex xMAP platform.

QIAGEN N.V. and Eppendorf AG recently formed a strategic alliance that includes co-development and co-marketing of complementary and optimized products. In general, the alliance is intended to link what the companies call “two of the strongest brands and product lines in the industry” to ensure the highest compatibility of their products in research, applied testing and molecular diagnostics applications.

In a team-up that could vastly improve lab automation efficiency, Cerionx Inc. and BioProcessors Corp. have combined the TipCharger System of Cerionx with the SimCell high-throughput cell culture automation platform from BioProcessors. The end result is that inoculation needles used in the SimCell platform can now be sterilized using low temperatures and reportedly using about the same amount of power as a light bulb.