The jackpot may not be as big as with reach-through agreements, but a straight service business model may offer smaller proteomics companies an attractive no-strings-attached route to success in the sector.

Take Eurogentec of Seraing, Belgium, which added proteomics services to its portfolio of research services last month by acquiring Wita Proteomics of Berlin. Wita's 2D gel electrophoresis and protein identification capabilities seemed a good match for Eurogentec, which is a spinoff from the University of Liège and has about 260 employees.