NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Waters held a groundbreaking ceremony this week for its new mass spectrometry headquarters in the UK, just south of Manchester. The new facility is scheduled for completion in 2014 and will unite employees from four separate sites in South Manchester and Altrincham.
Belgian molecular diagnostics firm Multiplicom has received the CE IVD Mark for its BRCA MASTR Dx Test, which identifies mutations in the coding regions of the BRCA 1 and 2 genes in individuals with an increased risk for breast, ovarian, and/or other related cancers. The firm expects to begin shipping the test in Europe in September 2012.
Cartagenia said this week that the UK Evaluation of Array Comparative Genomic Hybridisation in Prenatal Diagnosis of Fetal Anomalies project will use the firm's BENCH platform for genomic variant storage and analysis.
The University of Maryland BioPark this week said that UK firm Biogen Diagnostics has signed a lease to set up a US facility at the BioPark. Biogen Diagnostics is a UK-based molecular diagnostics and personalized medicine firm.
A group of state bioscience institutes and associations joined forces this week at the annual BIO Convention in Boston to form the Coalition of State Biosciences Institutes. The Biotechnology Institute, a national non-profit, is one of the founding members and will serve as the administrative organization for CSBI, which is focused on industry-led life science education, workforce development, and entrepreneurship programs. Other CSBI founding organizations include BayBio Institute, BIOCOM Institute, iBIO Institute, KansasBio, MassBioEd, MdBio Foundation, and the Oregon Bioscience Association. In total, there are 41 bioscience organizations that comprise CSBI.
In Brief This Week is a Friday column containing news items that our readers may have missed during the week.