Protein Lounge, OmniViz to Bundle Certain of Their Technologies
Protein Lounge, a provider of biological pathways, and bioinformatics company OmniViz intend to bundle Protein Lounge content within the OmniViz Pathway Enterprise software, the companies said.
Terms of the agreement also make OmniViz the exclusive distributor for Protein Lounge’s pathway content within informatics software, the firms said.
OPE, a pathway display, “provides support for textbook-style drawings, including entities such as cellular components and membranes,” according to OmniViz. Protein Lounge, meantime, has more than 300 manually curated cell signaling and biosynthetic pathways.
Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.
PNNL Wins $10.3M NIH Biodefense Proteomics Contract
Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., have won a $10.3 million biodefense proteomics contract from the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Agents, PNNL said last week.
Under the five-year contract, scientists led by Richard Smith will analyze the proteins of orthopox viruses, Salmonella typhimurium, and Salmonella typhi using proteomics techniques.
Collaborators at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland will prepare the microbial samples, which will be analyzed by researchers at PNNL to determine which microbial proteins interact with which human host cells proteins.
PerkinElmer and Predictive Diagnostics Ally for Biomarker Discovery
PerkinElmer and the Predictive Diagnostics subsidiary of Large Scale Biology, announced an agreement to develop biomarker discovery technology for application in drug development and diagnostic testing.
The collaboration will exclusively combine PerkinElmer’s MALDI proTOF mass spectrometer product line with Predictive Diagnostic’s biomarker amplification filter technology services.
Financial details were not disclosed.
MDS Revenues Surge on Mass Spec Sales
Buoyed by sales of its 4000 series of mass spec instruments, Toronto-based MDS has reported a 5 percent growth in earnings for its third quarter ending July 31.
The company, which is undergoing a strategic reorganization, had revenues of CA$465 million, up from CA$444 million for the year-ago quarter as sales for the company’s API 4000 and 4000 Qtrap mass spec instruments increased 36 percent, the company said. Net income was CA$50 million, compared to CA$33 million for the same quarter in 2003.
MDS has net revenues of and finished the quarter with CA$273 million in cash and cash equivalents. The company reported a loss of CA$7 million on research and development, compared to CA$11 million in Q3 ‘03.
On Sept. 1, MDS and Applied Biosystems announced an expansion of their mass spectrometry joint venture (click here to read about this).
Hamilton and Kendro Pen Partnership to Market New Automation Solutions in Protein Crystallization
Automation companies Hamilton and Kendro announced last week that they have entered into a partnership to market the automated solutions for protein crystallization that the two companies have developed together.
The companies developed a new system to automate all the partial steps in protein crystallization with a high level of reproducibility, a minimal requirement for samples and increased throughput. In addition, their new database allows information about the conditions under which crystals were grown to be evaluated in a straightforward manner.
Thermo Electron Acquires InnaPhase for $65 Million
Thermo Electron announced this week that it has completed the acquisition of Innaphase, a supplier of Laboratory Information Management Systems, for $65 million.
Headquartered in Philadelphia, InnaPhase supplies LIMS for pharmaceutical and biotechnology markets. It has over 100 employees and expects revenues of approximately $26 million in 2004.
“The addition of InnaPhase’s pharmaceutical LIMS technology broadens and strengthens the array of solutions that Thermo is able to provide its customers in key applications such as proteomics and ADME/TOX,” said Marijn Dekkers, the president and CEO of Thermo Electron.
InnaPhase’s products will be integrated with Thermo’s informatics product line, which includes SampleManager.