Qiagen to Market, Distribute Biomatrica's DNA-Storage Technology
Qiagen said this week that it will market and distribute Biomatrica’s room temperature DNA-storage technology.
Under the agreement, Qiagen will pay Biomatrica an up-front fee, followed by development milestone payments, commission, and royalties.
Biomatrica’s sample-storage system uses its SampleMatrix technology, which forms a protective seal around biomolecules. The samples are accessed through rehydration, the company said.
Biomatrica also offers sample-management software that can be used in low- and high-throughput research, and with biobanks.
Qiagen said the SampleMatrix technology is “highly synergistic” with its own sample-prep technology and is usable with its PCR-based genotyping and molecular testing products, and for comparative genomic studies.
The company said it expects to expand the exclusive agreement in the future to include Biomatrica’s technology to stabilize, ship, and store DNA molecules in blood and buccal-swab samples.
Financial details of the agreement were not released.
Analyticon to Provide Lead Generation Services for Merck KGaA
AnalytiCon Discovery, a Potsdam, Germany-based drug-discovery company specializing in natural products, this week said it will provide German pharma Merck KGaA with natural product lead generation services until the end of 2009.
Under the agreement, AnalytiCon will apply its MEGAbolite technology to exploit more than 10,000 extracts from plants and microorganisms. A key step in the process is to identify organisms that could be used to deliver novel natural products.
The companies said they will co-develop interesting lead compounds through pre-clinical research, one part of which will be a protocol to supply the partners with multi-milligram amounts of biologically active natural products to perform hit-to-lead optimization cycles on an as-needed basis.
PerkinElmer Takes Top Honors in Life Science Industry Awards
PerkinElmer this week announced that it won the high-throughput screening category in the 2007 Life Science Industry Awards, which honor best-in-class suppliers in the life sciences.
More than 3,000 scientists worldwide participated in the independent survey sponsored by The Scientist magazine and market research firm BioInformatics.