CHICAGO, May 29 – Micromass and Bio-Rad Laboratories have entered a deal to sell their jointly developed proteomics platform to the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, a Micromass spokesman said Tuesday.
The ProteomeWorks System, a platform of integrated technologies, includes Bio-Rad’s 2-D gel electrophoresis and liquid chromatography instruments and Micromass’ Maldi-TOF mass spectrometry instrument, as well as sample preparation kits and consumables, bioinformatics software, and image analysis tools.
The platform will be used by EMBL as part of its effort to become a hub for public sector proteomics research in Europe, Mark McDowall, international marketing manager for Micromass, told GenomeWeb.
EMBL scientist Matthias Wilm, who was not immediately available for comment, will direct the new proteomics initiative employing the technologies at the publicly funded institute, McDowall said.
While financial terms were not immediately available, McDowall said that EMBL is purchasing the proteomics platform at “the best price.”
He added that “EMBL draws many of the top European scientists. This gives us access to their advice to develop and move forward [in the proteomics market].”
The companies will install one of the systems and a full-time technician at the EMBL site while additional systems may be added later.
The ProteomeWorks platform was developed by Micromass and Bio-Rad in partnership with the Australian Proteome Analysis Facility at Macquarie University in Sydney, which currently performs proteomics research on the system. Novartis's Torrey Pines Research Institute in La Jolla has also installed the platform.