Tools & Techniques

Caliper Life Sciences’ newly-minted strategy of out-licensing its patent estate to gain greater penetration within the life sciences market gained more steam recently with the late April announcement that lab-on-a-chip giant Affymetrix had agreed to license a portion of the company’s microfluidics technology.

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.

In April, the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, located here granted licensing rights for U.S. Patent, No. 6,855,523 to Hamilton Thorne Biosciences, putting the Beverly, Mass.-based DNA technology and automated instrumentation company in a strong position to market a potential competitor to PCR: linear and exponential rolling circle amplification (RCA).

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.

SciTegic Inc. announced in March an independent software vendor (ISV) partner program that is will allow the ISV’s tools and applications to run seamlessly on SciTegic’s flagship Pipeline Pilot informatics system.

Since 1986, Qiagen has developed and marketed a range of products for academic and industrial markets, including life science research, genomics, gene-based drug discovery, nucleic acid-based molecular diagnostics, genetic vaccination, and gene therapy market.

Instrumentation and discovery informatics provider Symyx Technologies Inc. announced in late February its intention to acquire Research Triangle Park, N.C.-based Synthematix, a provider of organic synthesis reaction software systems.

Scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in concert with other national labs across the country, recently launched an online microbial genome database that integrates for the first time all previously published sequence data from the Joint Genome Institute (JGI) and other public research arms.

Applied Biosystems and professional consulting services provider Deloitte Consulting LLP signed a strategic alliance agreement in late February that will allow the two companies to work in concert to provide comprehensive informatics solutions that reach from the bench to the boardroom.

Unwilling to simply sit on its laurels and coast along with what is reportedly the world’s largest commercial gene expression reference database, GeneLogic recently introduced its Microarray Data Generation and Analysis Services.

With the $11-million purchase of Transfluor technology assets from Xsira Pharmaceuticals in early March, Molecular Devices Corp. officials say the company significantly strengthened its position as a provider of tools for imaging and G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) assays.

Nanotechnology and materials specialist NanoHorizons announced early in February that it had been issued a patent for its deposited thin-film system, QuickMass, for high-throughput small-molecule MS.