Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., the world leader in serving science, has announced it has received a contract from the U.S. government to provide highly specialized viral transport media (VTM) for COVID-19 sample collection. The VTM is used during collection of patient samples for proper transport to laboratories that can test for the presence of the virus....

To capture the importance of this initiative, and in anticipation of the grand opening of the Ellison Institute’s new building, Olympus has created a video, highlighting the relationship between imaging analysis tools and precision cancer medicine. One focus of the partnership is encouraging projects that engage translational oncology and precision anti-cancer drug screening...

The Coronavirus Pandemic has now reached millions of cases globally. The race is on to develop a vaccine, countries are ramping up testing, and companies are committing resources to the development of test kits. Worldwide Glass Resources® has joined the effort by allocating capacity and manufacturing custom engineered vials for Covid 19 kits....

By combining Mologic’s independently verified COVID-19 lateral flow test with BioSure’s market-leading design, the companies have created a self-test for COVID-19 that can be used without any training being required. The innovative design has been proven to be extremely easy to use, requires only a fraction of a drop of blood and gives the user their own result in just 10 minutes...

Vision Engineering, a 61 year old British leading designer and manufacturer of high-quality visual measurement and inspection technologies, has attained ISO 17025:2017 accreditation from UKAS and is now a UKAS accredited calibration laboratory No. 7706. The award of ISO 17025:2017 by UKAS Accreditation, which is globally recognised, is the only mechanism that determines the technical competence and integrity of the organisations offering testing and calibration services....

The Eppendorf Group is expanding its production capacity at the Oldenburg in Holstein site in Germany by building two additional production halls. As a result, Eppendorf Polymere GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Eppendorf AG, will increase its total capacity by around 30 percent from 2021. A milestone for this targeted expansion was reached May 14, 2020 with the topping-out ceremony for the second hall currently under construction....

HALIX B.V. has joined a consortium of partners under the guidance of the University of Oxford, to provide GMP manufacturing services supporting the large scale production of a COVID-19 vaccine (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19), being developed by the University’s Jenner Institute. This GMP manufacturing scale-up is taking place alongside early phase clinical trials. The trials are crucial in testing whether the vaccine is proven to be effective....

The Lighthouse Laboratory in Glasgow – a major new COVID-19 testing facility based in Scotland – is now operational. The Lighthouse Lab, which officially started testing samples for COVID-19 this week, is part of what will be the biggest network of diagnostic testing facilities in British history, alongside other Lighthouse Lab sites in Milton Keynes and Alderley Park, which were opened in recent days....

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., the world leader in serving science, has announced it is expanding capacity for viral vector development and manufacturing services with construction of a new commercial manufacturing site in Plainville, Mass. The $180 million project will more than double the company's commercial viral vector capacity to support increasing demand for the development and manufacture of gene therapies and vaccines....

Merck, a leading science and technology company, has announced a second Carlsbad, California, U.S.A.-based facility for its BioReliance® viral and gene therapy service offering. The new, € 100 million commercial facility is expected to open next year. “Viral vector manufacturing has transitioned from a niche industry to the cornerstone of the future of biopharmaceuticals,” said Udit Batra, member of the Merck Executive Board and CEO, Life Science....

The University of Oxford has announced an agreement with the UK-based global biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca for the further development, large-scale manufacture and potential distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate currently being trialled by the University. The partnership is to begin immediately with the final terms being agreed in the coming weeks. This will allow for rapid vaccination around the world if the COVID-19 vaccine candidate proves to be effective....

Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), the developer of Affimer® biotherapeutics and reagents, is pleased to announce that it has entered into a collaboration with Cytiva, formerly known as GE Healthcare Life Sciences. The companies will develop and manufacture an Affimer-based point-of-care rapid test intended for screening of large populations to diagnose the COVID-19 coronavirus infection. The World Health Organisation recently....

Labs working to combat COVID-19 will benefit from this initiative, as CytoSMART aims to reduce the huge workload currently facing researchers on projects vital to controlling the disease. “We aim to do our part to assist researchers in minimizing the time they have to spend in high-contamination labs, by providing them with remote video access to evaluate the status of their cell cultures. The video data is used to remotely monitor the cytopathic effect, this way researchers know when it’s the right time to harvest the virus....

The machine, a Tecan Freedom EVO 100, will be used to help automate and accelerate the analysis of samples at the first of the UK Government’s new Lighthouse Labs in Milton Keynes. The state-of-the-art liquid handling machine is designed to automate the pipetting of multiple samples in laboratories undertaking biological testing. The EVO 100 is considerably faster than manual pipetting, increasing the speed at which assays can be run and enhancing sample through-put. The equipment also facilitates better assay reproducibility and allows resources and testing equipment to be used more efficiently....

The Covid-19 Volunteer Testing Network has been launched to provide essential additional testing capacity to front-line workers. The project, started by Mike Fischer CBE, helps small laboratories convert to run critical antigen testing and identify Covid-19 cases among local healthcare workers - at no cost to Government. The UK has thousands of small laboratories with the right equipment, personnel and processes to run Covid-19 testing...

Temperature control technology from Huber is used, for example, to manufacture chemicals for coronavirus tests. The corona pandemic poses great challenges to people around the world. Health systems and medical facilities are being subjected to an unprecedented test of endurance. The novel corona virus SARS-CoV-2 has put the entire world in a state of emergency...

Leading research materials supplier, Goodfellow, is showing support to several initiatives in the fight against COVID-19, supplying materials that are being used to make protective equipment for frontline workers. Their latest donation has seen the company donate 130 kilos of polypropylene coil to Stamford School in Lincolnshire, UK, where Design Technology teachers are voluntarily manufacturing 1,000 protective face masks a day...

Beaumont Health’s Research Institute is launching America’s largest serological testing study to help answer many questions surrounding the spread of COVID-19 and potentially help treat patients battling the virus. New study aims to determine the total population with COVID-19 antibodies across a health system, identify potential convalescent plasma donors, better understand disease transmission and contribute to a scientifically-based methodology for returning people to work....

Miele’s two latest professional laboratory glasswashers have been honoured with design awards. The iF Design Awards have been hosted every year since 1953 by the International Forum Design – headquartered in Germany but assessing more than 6,000 submissions from 70 countries worldwide.In 2020 Miele’s SlimLine glass washer range (PLW 6011-6111) and newly introduced large chamber lab washer (PLW 86xx) have been chosen as winning designs...