People in the News
Jai Nagarkatti, Sigma-Aldrich's sitting president and chief operating officer, will assume the posts of president and chief executive officer starting Jan. 1, the company said last week.
Nagarkatti will succeed current CEO and board chairman David Harvey, who will continue on as chairman of the board of directors. Nagarkatti was also elected to the board as part of the shuffling of leadership.
According to the St. Louis-based life sciences company, Nagarkatti has been with Sigma-Aldrich for nearly 30 years, holding positions in R&D, production, operations and sales and marketing. He has served as COO and president since August 2004.
Jim Woodgett has been named the new director of the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, the hospital said last week.
Woodgett previously served as director of the University Health Network's Microarray Center. He has also been division head of experimental therapeutics at the Ontario Cancer Institute at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto.
New Product Watch
SciGene last week launched its Model 805 Ozone Monitor for measuring ozone that can weaken Cy-5 signals on microarrays.
The company claims that the new device can accurately measure ozone levels from 2 parts per billion to 100 parts per million.
Invitrogen said this week that it will launch its NCode Multi-Species miRNA Microarray for miRNA profiling next month.
The NCode platform enables researchers to profile all known miRNAs from humans, plus additional human predicted miRNAs, mouse, rat, Drosophila, c. elegans, and zebrafish, Invitrogen said.
Jivan Biologics this week made available its PCR Primer Set for genome-wide splice variant detection.
The Berkeley, Calif.-based array company said that customers for its TransExpress splice arrays can now order the corresponding PCR primer pairs for oligonucleotide probes on any TransExpress array. Each PCR primer pair spans an exon junction or alternately spliced site, Jivan said. Researchers can also directly order PCR primers for genes and splice variants of interest.
Last month, Jivan launched its Custom Exon Junction Microarrays, designed to detect RNA splicing events in biological samples.
According to the company, customers can select from a pre-designed and validated genome-wide probe set and can also choose their preferred platform and manufacturer. The exon junction probes are available in versions optimized for multiple manufacturers, including Agilent Technologies and ArrayIt Life Sciences, the company said.
NOTE: Due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the US, BioArray News will be published on Monday, Nov. 21 next week. We will resume our normal publication schedule on Tuesday, Nov. 29.