Tokyo, Japan (Scicasts) - World Fusion, the Japanese informatics management firm, today announced the creation of a sequence analysis service center with a bioinformatics infrastructure based on CLC bio's enterprise platform for high-throughtput sequencing data analysis, coupled with World Fusion's own Life Science Knowledge Bank (LSKB) bio knowledge database system.

San Diego, CA (scicasts) - Accelrys and Symyx Technologies have announced Merger completion. According to the announcement, the combined entity enables customers to improve scientific performance by creating more open, flexible and agile environments, streamlining workflows, reducing operating costs, and increasing the potential for innovation.

München, Germany (Scicasts) - Eurofins MWG Operon, a next generation sequencing (NGS) Company and Genomatix Software GmbH, a company involved in complex analysis and interpretation of such NGS data, have announced their decision to combine their expertise and join forces to offer state-of-the art solutions for comprehensive genome analysis and re-sequencing project services.

Guildford, UK, and Burlington, MA (Scicasts) - IDBS, a worldwide provider of research data management and analytics solutions to R&D organizations, has announced innovative new one-click Microsoft Word publishing functionality in its E-WorkBook Suite. One-click publishing capabilities enable rapid generation of complex reports, particularly those requiring regulatory compliance, including investigational new drug (IND) reports, new drug applications (NDAs), biologics license applications (BLAs), study reports, and validation reports.

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.

Santa Clara, CA (Scicasts) - Agilent Technologies has announced that its acquisition of scientific-equipment maker Varian is now final. According to the announcement, Agilent paid approximately $1.5 billion in cash for Varian in a deal that brings together two Silicon Valley pioneers.

Yokohama, Japan and Aarhus, Denmark (Scicasts) - RIKEN and CLC bio Japan have announced an agreement for the purchase of CLC bio’s enterprise platform software by RIKEN Omics Science Center (OSC). According to the announcement, CLC bio’s high-throughput sequence analysis infrastructure will empower both OSC's scientists and OSC’s Genome Network Analysis Service (GeNAS) with a user-friendly and fast workflow to efficiently manage and analyze large quantities of genomics data.

Waltham, MA (Scicasts) - Phase Forward, a provider of data management solutions for clinical trials and drug safety, has announced that it has agreed to be acquired by Oracle for $17.00 per share in cash, representing a valuation of approximately $685 million. The transaction is subject to stockholder and regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions and is expected to close in mid-2010.

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.

Basel, Switzerland (Scicasts) - Genedata, a provider of advanced software solutions for drug discovery and life science research, has announced a five-year-extension of an ongoing collaboration with the Netherland's Kluyver Centre, an industry and government consortium using microbial genomics to improve industrial fermentation processes. The Genedata Phylosopher biological data management platform and the Genedata Expressionist biomarker discovery platform will support central data storage and provide automated workflows to integrate transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomic data for the centre's academic and industrial research partners.

Australia (Scicasts) - Tecan Australia is a new business venture aimed at providing dedicated regional support to Tecan customers throughout Australasia. According to Tecan's announcement, this latest commitment builds on and continues the established partnership with AimLab to promote and support Tecan’s range of laboratory instruments in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific islands. The existing team of highly trained sales and support staff will now be able to provide enhanced service through dedicated support of Tecan products, further strengthening its existing relationships with world class research and diagnostics customers in the region.

Fremont, CA (Scicasts) - WaferGen Biosystems, a developer of genetic analysis systems, has unveiled that Ghent University (UGent) in Belgium has signed a research collaboration and is an early-access customer for the WaferGen SmartChip Real-Time PCR System.

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.

Sunnyvale, CA (Scicasts) - Symyx Technologies has announced it's successful transition to a pure-play scientific software company with the completion of the planned divestiture of its High Productivity Research (HPR) business unit assets, previously announced on February 11, 2010. The divested assets will be owned and operated by FreeSlate (formerly HPR Global) in HPR's current location in Sunnyvale, California.

Aarhus, Denmark (Scicasts) - CLC bio, a bioinformatics solution provider, has announced a partnership with Isilon Systems, which the company believes will help the life science community eliminate some of the toughest workflow bottlenecks when working with high-throughput sequencing data: Analysis and storage.

Basel, Switzerland (Scicasts) - Genedata, a provider of advanced software solutions for industrial biotechnology R&D, has announced an extended partnership with Evonik, a life science, specialty chemicals and material science company. According to the announcement, Evonik is expanding the application of its central computational infrastructure and has renewed licenses for the Genedata Phylosopher research data management system and the Genedata Expressionist cross-omics and molecular profiling system.

Fremont, CA - Infosys Technologies has announced that it will design and implement the Research Informatics System (RISe) at Elan Pharmaceuticals, to accelerate discovery research using a path-breaking co-creation engagement model that leverages Infosys’ existing intellectual property in this field.

Armonk, NY (Scicasts) - IBM has unveiled that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Initiate Systems, a market leader in data integrity software for information sharing among healthcare and government organizations. Initiate's software helps healthcare clients work more intelligently and efficiently with timely access to patient and clinical data. It also enables governments to share information across multiple agencies to better serve citizens.

Foster City, CA and Concord, ON (Scicasts) - AB SCIEX has announced its launch as a new company dedicated to life science analytical technologies. According to the announcement, the new company combines the two halves of the highly successful AB SCIEX mass spectrometry joint venture into an integrated organization. AB SCIEX intends to utilize its new operating structure to increase speed to market in developing innovative new solutions and expanding service and support to enable the scientific community to continue its increasing use of mass spectrometry for a broader range of applications.

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.