NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Waters today announced an agreement with the Tecan Group to automate sample preparation in order to improve clinical assays developed on liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry technologies.
The deal calls for the combination of Water's Acquity TQD LC/MS systems with Tecan's Freedom EVO liquid handling platform into a single fully supported analytical system solution "that helps laboratories increase assay throughput and efficiency, improve profitability, and drive down overall assay costs," Waters said in a statement.
In its own statement, Tecan said it expects the integrated instrument to be available within the next six months.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
According to Patrick Martell, clinical marketing director for Waters, the multi-step process of preparing samples for LC/MS/MS analyses is a major bottleneck and laboratory managers consistently have asked for better and more automated sample preparation and analysis.
"Combining sample preparation and analysis in a single unified platform facilitates the entire assay process and streamlines analyses significantly," he said. "By lowering assay costs and bringing a greater consistency to test results, laboratories can offer clients a higher level of service and responsiveness."