People in the News
Invitrogen has named former NIH stem cell section chief Mahendra Rao vice president of research of its Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine business.
Rao holds an MD from Bombay University in India and a PhD in developmental neurobiology from the California Institute of Technology.
VNUS Medical Technologies has appointed Gregory Schiffman to its board of directors. Schiffman, who will also join VNUS' audit committee, is executive vice president and chief financial officer of Affymetrix.
David Edwards has joined Stratagene as director of software solutions. In this role, he will manage the company's line of expression and pathways analysis software. Edwards most recently served as director of life sciences at Accelrys.
New Product Watch
Illumina this week launched its AutoLoader, an automated system that the company claims enables users to stage up to 40 of its Sentrix BeadChips for scanning on a BeadStation. Illumina said that AutoLoader could provide 15 hours of unattended, automated operation.
The release is coupled with the availability of the firm's new BeadScan 3.4 data acquisition software that it claims can achieve scanning throughput 400 percent greater than previously possible and give the user the ability to select different scanning speeds. BeadScan 3.4 is compatible with different array configurations, the company said.
ExonHit Therapeutics this week announced that a number of its SpliceArray products are now available on the Affymetrix microarray platform.
SpliceArrays available on the GeneChip platform include arrays for GPCR, ion channel, nuclear receptors, and apoptosis pathways, the company said. Custom arrays are also available.
The French company announced its plans to make its SpliceArray products on Affy's platform in October (see BAN 10/19/2005).