Gentel Biosciences Licenses Agnitio's Coating Technology for Protein Arrays
Gentel Biosciences said this week that it has licensed technology from Agnitio Science and Technology of Hsinchu, Taiwan, covering the use of an ultrasonic coating used in producing nitrocellulose films.
The Madison, Wisconsin-based Gentel said it will use the ultrasonic coating technology to manufacture “highly reproducible” nitrocellulose protein microarray slides. The company said it will incorporate the technology into its manufacturing process for its standard microarray slides as well as for its APiX 96-well microarray platform.
The company said that ultrasonic coating produces nitrocellulose films with a consistency that is “unattainable using traditional coating processes like casting.”
“This technology not only gives Gentel the flexibility to produce a variety of slides that are optimized for different applications, but it also increases our ability to ramp up production significantly while substantially reducing cost of goods, a must if we are to deliver low-cost, effective products to our customers, CEO Alex Vodenlich told BioArray News in an e-mail.
“It’s important because good slides deliver the sensitivity and reproducibility required for high-performance multiplex immunoassays,” he said. “It boosts every product and service that we deliver to our customers.”
Financial terms of the agreement were not released.
Germany’s IMGM Labs Becomes Agilent Service Provider
Agilent Technologies said this week that IMGM Laboratories has become a certified service provider.
The Martinsried, Germany-based firm is proficient in using its Agilent microarray and 2100 Bioanalyzer lab-on-chip platform.
The genomics service provider previously offered array analysis on Applied Biosystems’ 1700 Chemiluminescent Expression Analysis System, which ABI will cease offering at the end of 2009 (see BAN 07/15/2008).
Ralph Oehlmann, director of business development at IMGM, said that by switching to Agilent, his company is aiming to “increase the value of our whole-genome gene expression service."
Bayer CropScience Licenses Ariadne, Integrated Genomics Databases
Bayer CropScience has licensed Ariadne Genomics’ molecular analysis software and Integrated Genomics’ Metabolic Vision database for its research into plant stress reactions, Ariadne said last week.
The agreement covers Ariadne’s Pathway Studio platform, and includes the ResNet Plant database and the MedScan information extraction module.
The MedScan module is used to customize Ariadne’s standard ResNet Plant and ResNet Mammalian databases to create new databases for particular research programs, Ariadne Senior Director of Sales John Clouston said in a statement.
The Metabolic Vision database, which Ariadne distributes under an agreement with Integrated Genomics, is used to study bacterial and fungal pathways.
Financial terms of the agreement were not released.
Illumina Prices Public Offering
Illumina said last week that it has priced its public offering of 3.5 million shares of common stock at $87.50 per share.
The firm said that net proceeds from the offering were approximately $297.9 million. Illumina also has granted the underwriter an option to purchase an additional 525,000 shares of the stock within a period of 30 days after the date of the prospectus supplement related to the offering.
Illumina said in an SEC filing that it intends to use the proceeds from the offering to fund R&D efforts, expand its manufacturing capacity, and for working capital needs. It also said that it may use the money to acquire, license, or invest in other businesses, technologies, or products.
Goldman, Sachs is acting as sole manager of the offering.
Immucor Completes Purchase of BioArray Solutions
Immucor said last week that it has completed the approximately $117 million acquisition of BioArray Solutions.
The deal, which was announced in March, will provide Immucor with BioArray’s BeadChip system to determine antigens for donors and recipients of blood transfusions. Immucor’s reagents and instruments also are focused on the blood transfusion industry (see BAN 3/18/2008).
The acquisition “will enable us to provide innovative molecular diagnostic solutions for blood transfusions to enhance patient outcomes,” Immucor President and CEO Gioacchino De Chirico said in a statement.