Carlsbad, CA and Heidelberg, Germany (Scicasts) - Life Technologies and the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum or DKFZ) have announced their collaboration to create the National High-Throughput Sequencing Center. According to the announcement, this exclusive partnership will create the largest sequencing facility in Germany and the first national sequencing centre in Europe dedicated to systems biology.

Scottsdale, AZ and Cambridge, UK (Scicasts) - TGen Drug Development (TD2) and Horizon Discovery have announced a strategic alliance that the companies believe will significantly advance personalized medicine. According to the announcement. the partnership will create a beginning-to-end solution for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to more rationally design and tailor their drugs to specific patient populations based on the unique genetic variations that define a given disease.

San Diego, CA (Scicasts) - Ambry Genetics and RainDance Technologies have announced at the Annual CHI Next Generation Sequencing Conference in San Diego, CA their partnership utilizing the RDT 1000 for sequence enrichment and resequencing validation. Ambry Genetics is a CLIA certified and CAP accredited Diagnostic and Genomic Services company providing solutions to both clinical and research clients.

Phoenix, AZ (Scicasts) - The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) has announced the completion of a strategic alliance and affiliation agreement with the Van Andel Research Institute (VARI) that will maximize the research capabilities of both non-profit institutes.

Phoenix, AZ and Danville, PA (Scicasts) - The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and Geisinger Health System have announced the signing of a strategic research agreement that provides for a focused look at the gaps in clinical medicine where biomedical research can make a difference.

Helsinki, Finland (Scicasts) - Finland has made its first specific commitment to the development of European biomedical research infrastructures (BMS ESFRIs) by supporting a joint pilot infrastructure project in bioinformatics (ELIXIR), biobanking (BBMRI) and translational research (EATRIS), according to a report from University of Helsinki. The initial commitment of 1.85 M€ is to support preparation and pilot studies in 2010.

Carlsbad, CA (Scicasts) - Life Technologies, a provider of innovative life science solutions, has unveiled that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire AcroMetrix, for an undisclosed amount.

Guildford, UK, and Burlington, MA (Scicasts) - IDBS, a provider of research data management and analytics solutions to R&D organizations, has announced that it has expanded its Asia Pacific presence with new centres in both China and Australia. From these new offices IDBS is now providing customers with direct local support and training, as well as sales and business development across the entire portfolio of IDBS products; ActivityBase, E-WorkBook and InforSense Suites.

Woburn, MA (Scicasts) - BioTrove has announced that it is forming a wholly owned subsidiary named BIOCIUS Life Sciences to hold the assets of the RapidFire Business Unit. Upon completion of Life Technologies proposed acquisition of BioTrove, also announced that, BIOCIUS Life Sciences will be spun-out as an independent operating company.

Philadelphia, PA (Scicasts) - Thermo Fisher Scientific has announced the release of a joint product development effort resulting from its partnership with Symyx Technologies. According to the announcement, the solution will provide scientists in the bioanalytical community with a completely automated laboratory workflow by integrating Thermo Scientific Watson LIMS (laboratory information management system) with Symyx Notebook. The integration of the industry-standard Thermo Scientific Watson LIMS with Symyx’s electronic lab notebook (ELN) will give scientists secure and seamless access to experimental data across the laboratory. The automated transfer of information between Watson LIMS and the Symyx Notebook provides a streamlined, compliant workflow for bioanalytical studies.

Bethesda, MD (Scicasts) - President Barack Obama announced $5 billion in grant awards under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) to fund cutting-edge medical research in every state across America.

Santa Clara and Carlsbad, CA (Scicasts) - Agilent Technologies and Applied Biosystems, part of Life Technologies, have introduced the Agilent SureSelect Target Enrichment System, which is optimized for the SOLiD System, a next-generation advanced genomic analysis sequencing platform. As part of the agreement, the companies are co-marketing the SureSelect system, which is a unique research tool for efficiently re-sequencing specific regions of interest in the genome.

 

Reno, Nevada (OBBeC) - Hamilton Robotics and Promega have announced that the two companies will collaborate in the development of an automated system for the isolation of genomic DNA from large-volume blood samples.

Abingdon, UK (OBBeC) - Toumaz Technology Limited, a provider of ultra-low power wireless infrastructure for body monitoring solutions, has announced that Toumaz Technology Co-Founder, Chairman and Chief Technology Officer Professor Chris Toumazou FRS has won the 2009 World Technology Award in the Health and Medicine category.

Switzerland (OBBeC) – According to a press report from Tecan, A new automated solution developed through a collaboration between Tecan and researchers at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences in Wädenswil and at the University of Zurich, has been nominated for an award by Innovation Promotion Agency CTI of the Swiss Confederation. The new system controls all required steps of cell culture, including isolation, seeding, proliferation, harvesting and quality control of cell lines and primary cells, providing standardized and affordable procedures for research into ground-breaking regenerative medicine.

Branford, CT (OBBeC) - Roche Applied Science has announced the winners of the 10 Gigabase Grant Program for DNA sequencing and transcriptome analysis studies.

Montréal, CA (OBBeC) - The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) has announced an award of $9.16 million for the creation of a national technology platform aimed at mapping the human interactome. This national platform, headed by Dr. Benoit Coulombe from the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal (IRCM), will not only provide Canadian researchers with new state-of-the-art equipment in proteomics, functional genomics and bioinformatics, but also bring together integrated infrastructure for deciphering the human interactome an expertise that, until now, has been spread in 12 universities across Canada.

Guildford, UK (OBBeC) - IDBS, a provider of research informatics solutions, has announced that Vernalis has purchased E-WorkBook Suite for chemistry (ChemBook) as its corporate chemistry data management solution.