ABI Signs on with MassTech for AP-MALDI
MassTech of Columbia, Md. announced last week that it will collaborate with Applied Biosystems to develop an AP-MALDI source that will interface with ABI’s 4000 Q-TRAP mass spectrometer.
The AP-MALDI source will support ABI’s standard 100-well plate format, as well as MassTech’s 96-well plate format.
MassTech already has similar collaborations with Bruker Daltonics, Thermo Electron, and Agilent Technologies (see PM 5-21-04).
Irish Proteome Center Opens in Dublin
The Conway Institute Proteome Research Center — a new facility located on the Belfield campus of University College Dublin — held a symposium this week to mark its launch.
The center will be led by Stephen Pennington, chair of proteomics at UCD, and its research will focus on identifying new biological markers of disease and possible targets for therapy.
The symposium agenda, which included speakers such as Scott Patterson and Dolores Cahill, is available online here.
Cell Signaling and Li-Cor Join Hands
Cell Signaling Technology and Li-Cor Biosciences announced this week that they have signed a joint marketing and validation agreement to use CST’s antibody reagents with Li-Cor’s cellular assays.
The companies said they will validate Li-Cor’s In-Cell Western cellular imaging assays with CST’s phosphospecific antibodies, which target signaling molecules such as kinases and apoptosis regulators. The firms plan to develop a set of validated assays for therapeutically relevant signaling pathway proteins that will allow customers to measure phosphorylation of these proteins in the cell.
The companies will validate the assays on Li-Cor’s Odyssey infrared imaging system.
In addition to cellular assays, Li-Cor is working on protein array products.
Invitrogen Signs on GeneGo for Pathways Database
Invitrogen and St. Joseph, Mich.-based GeneGo announced this week that Invitrogen has licensed GeneGo’s pathways database and software system.
The multi-year licensing agreement includes plans for a collaboration to develop new capabilities for the software. The companies did not disclose the financial details of the agreement.
Michael Stapleton, general manager and vice president of Invitrogen’s bioinformatics business, said in a statement that the licensing deal would “help us in making bioinformatics an intrinsic part of Invitrogen’s solutions set for life science research.”
GeneGo has developed a program, MetaCore, that includes a database of molecular cellular pathways and is designed to integrate data from different levels of cellular function, including membrane receptors, signal transduction, transcription factors, and effector networks. The target users for the database are pharmaceutical scientists engaged in target selection and validation, biomarker identification, and toxicology, the company said in a statement.
Bruker AXS Signs on with Wisconsin Company for Crystal Software
Bruker AXS and Madison, Wis.-based Formulatrix announced last week that they have signed an agreement to combine Bruker’s Crystal Farm protein crystallization incubation and imaging system with Formulatrix’s Rock Maker software.
“By controlling both the liquid handling robotics and the incubation and optical scanning in the Crystal Farm, the Rock Maker software ‘closes the loop’ to allow crystallization conditions to be rapidly scanned and then optimized,” Roger Durst, Bruker AXS’ chief technology officer, said in a statement.
Bruker AXS, along with Bruker Daltonics, is a subsidiary of Bruker BioSciences.
The companies did not disclose the financial terms of the deal.
Formulatrix markets Rock Maker for automation and tracking of the protein crystallization process. The software includes features related to experiment design, liquid dispensing, plate storage and retrieval, and imaging. The system can be used with different systems for liquid handling, plate storage, and retrieval imaging, the company said.
Bruker AXS says that its Crystal Farm is “the first integrated incubation and imaging system for protein crystallization to be offered to the crystallography community.” The system has a capacity of 400 plates, an environmentally controlled incubator and the company’s “cool flash” imaging technology.