NHGRI, in collaboration with five other NIH institutes and centers, has awarded $15 million over three years for the creation of the United Protein Database, or UniProt, to combine Swiss-Prot, TrEMBL, and the Protein Information Resource.
Enzo Biochem filed a breach of distributorship suit against Amersham, PerkinElmer, Molecular Probes, Orchid BioSciences, and Sigma-Aldrich, charging breach of contract and patent infringement on nucleic acid products.
Gene Network Sciences won a $2 million NIST ATP grant to work on cell simulations to predict the effects of drugs on cancer.
Orchid BioSciences announced that it is shifting its gaze. Due to competition and other factors, the company will phase out its SNP genotyping instruments and reagents but will keep providing genotyping services.
Cepheid has joined forces with Applied Biosystems to create better biodetection reagents.
Peoples Genetics snagged a $2 million ATP grant from NIST to work on large-population analysis of the human genome. The money will go toward building a high-throughput mutational spectrometer, used to study 10,000 patient samples for the study.
Pyrosequencing let go 23 people in an attempt to get to profitability faster. The entire plan to cut costs is expected to save $7 million annually.
InforMax and SciTegic announced an alliance to work on bioinformatics products for data pipelines and automation.
Perlegen signed a CRADA with an international team of researchers to study the genetics behind type 2 diabetes. Leading team members include Michael Boehnke, David Cox, Francis Collins, Jaakko Tuomilehto, and Richard Bergman.
Genome Canada teamed up with The Netherlands Genomics Initiative in an agreement on spending for joint large-scale genomics projects.
Bucking the economy slump, High Throughput Genomics tripled the size of its Arizona headquarters and plans to hire staff as the company keeps growing.
Caliper received a $32.5 million payment from Aclara Biosciences as part of the litigation settlement worked out in the first quarter of 2001.
NuGen Technologies and the Genome Institute of Singapore began a research collaboration to continue development of NuGen’s gene-expression based amplification and labeling technology.
Caliper and Ambion are working together on an RNA amplification system that would implement microfluidics technology. Ambion will delve into a $1.6 million NIGMS grant to fund most of the project.
Iobion Informatics announced that a consortium of 39 med schools, academic health centers, and research institutions in New York adopted its GeneTraffic software, which stores microarray data files.
Celera Diagnostics formed a collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb to study genes implicated in cardiovascular disease and diabetes, looking to develop diagnostics or treatment.
Lilly and Surromed have teamed up. Surromed will use its mass spec and proteomics technology to study candidate biomarkers in preclinical samples from Lilly.
EraGen Biosciences, a Wisconsin company specializing in functional proteomics, won an NIH grant to develop an automated screening system for cystic fibrosis.
About half the members of the Prolinx staff were laid off as the company tries to get its cash burn under control.
Tullis-Dickerson announced the closure of a $122 million healthcare fund for seed and mid-stage companies. Informatics and genomic-tool firms are expected to be part of some 15 firms Tullis-Dickerson invests in.