Life Technologies said this week that it has signed an agreement with Copan Flock to provide an integrated, end-to-end system for DNA forensics.
Terms of the agreement call for Life Tech to globally distribute Copan's sample-collection systems for forensic applications. Copan's Nucleic-Card DNA collection system is a chemically treated sample collection matrix that lyses cells and preserves DNA spotted onto a paper substrate, and can help facilitate rapid and direct PCR amplification using Life Tech's STR kits.
Adding Copan's products will enable Life Tech to offer forensic and paternity customers an integrated solution across the entire forensics workflow, Life Tech added.
"By enabling our customers to collect DNA samples directly onto the paper or swab, which has been designed to optimally release a maximum amount of DNA, they will see an improvement in overall efficiency and success," John Gerace, head of applied sciences for Life Technologies, said in a statement.
Further terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
GeneThera said this week that its Monterrey, Mexico-based Applied Genetics subsidiary has signed a research and test-validation agreement with Universidad National Autonoma de Mexico.
As part of the agreement the partners will validate GeneThera's Johne's disease HerdCheck Field Collection System molecular assay in Mexico. Johne's disease is an incurable disease of dairy cows, sheep, and goats caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium paratuberculosis sub. Avium.
GeneThera is a molecular biotech firm based in Westminster, Colo. Its HerdCheck product is a proprietary molecular diagnostic system based on high-throughput robotics and real-time PCR.
"It is extremely critical that we can diagnose Johne's disease in Mexico using the most advanced technology available," Gilberto Chaves Griz, professor of veterinary pathology at UNAM and director of the Johne's Disease Center, said in a statement. "It is our firm intention to establish a national testing program for Johne's disease in Mexico with the help of Applied Genetics and GeneThera's state-of-the-art technology."