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Thermo Fisher Collaborates with Thailand on Metabolomics for Agricultural Applications

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Thermo Fisher Scientific today announced it has signed a memorandum of understanding for a research collaboration with Thailand's National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (BIOTEC), National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), and Ministry of Science and Technology.

As part of the collaboration, researchers from Thermo Fisher and BIOTEC will work to identify bioactive metabolites derived from microbes native to Thailand that could be used against fungal pathogens that damage crops economically important to the country.

"Microorganisms in Thailand have immense potential for bioactive compound mining," Kanyawim Kirtikara, executive director of BIOTEC, said in a statement. "This collaboration will enable BIOTEC to acquire natural, product-specific metabolome profiles using Thermo Fisher’s state-of-the-art high-resolution accurate mass spectrometry and its expertise in integrating various techniques in analytical chemistry and bioinformatics for fast separation and automated data analysis."

The partners said they will use Thermo Fisher's Orbitrap high-resolution accurate mass spectrometry to speed up the discovery process of new metabolites. 

Financial and other terms of the deal were not disclosed.  

BIOTEC is a research institute that is part of Thailand's NSTDA with over 30 laboratories and 160 research scientists. 

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