NEW YORK, March 21 – Shimadzu of Kyoto, Japan has launched a new global business unit that will focus on selling DNA sequencing and mass spectrometry products, the company said Wednesday.
The unit’s product portfolio will build on the AXIMA MALDI-TOF and MALDI-IT TOF quadruple ion trap mass spectrometry technology developed by the company’s subsidiary Kratos Analytical. Kratos is developing DNA and SNP analysis applications for these products as well as combinatorial chemistry applications.
The business unit will also build upon the proteomics alliance established in mid-2000 between Shimadzu and Proteome Systems of Sydney, Australia and Boston. The companies have said they would establish joint proteomics facilities in Sydney and Boston, using Kratos’ MALDI-TOF mass spectrometers and would jointly develop new proteomics tools that will help to automate protein analysis.
Tetsuo Ichikawa, who has up until now served as life sciences head for Shimadzu, a 125 year-old scientific instrument maker, will serve as head of this business unit.
"We see an excellent strategic fit between our know-how and the critical success factors that will be essential to the future of the biotech industry,” Ichikawa said in a statement. “Shimadzu Biotech is our solution to guaranteeing that we can deliver this expertise to the sector."