Array Genetics, a Newtown, Conn. bioinformatics company, has developed Mendelbase, a database of functional genomic information designed to categorize genes identified through DNA microarray screening. The database’s creator, W. Scott Argraves, is looking for scientists to provide to the database functional information on proteins. The website for this database is: http://www.arraygenetics.com/about_mendelBase.html.
Gyros of Uppsala, Sweden, has debuted its Gyrolab MALDI SP1 and Gyrolab Workstation, the first products based on its compact-disk format microfluidic technology. Gyrolab MALDI SP1 is a microfluidic sample preparation device for MALDI mass spectrometry. The device concentrates and purifies protein digests, processing 96 at a time, then crystallizes them onto MALDI target areas of the compact disk. Gyrolab Workstation directs this process, transferring samples and reagents onto the Gyrolab MALDI SP1, then moving them through the channels by spinning the compact disk substrate.