Since the start of the pandemic, a surge in sampling demand is putting ​laboratories under pressure, driving up the market, especially in labs that do qPCR and PCR applications. Automated liquid handling platforms, like PIPETMAX®, automate most of the liquid handling steps in your assays, increasing throughput and establishing a robust method for your laboratory workflow. Read our article "The benefits of adding robotics to your lab" to discover the major benefits of adopting automated pipetting systems into your liquid handling workflow...

PrecisionLife Limited, a global techbio company using its deep insights into disease biology and patient stratification to drive precision medicine in chronic diseases, is pleased to announce a partnership with Sano Genetics, a genetic research platform enabling patients to participate in ethical research projects, to advance understanding of the long-term effects of coronavirus infection (long COVID)...

Autoscribe Informatics has announced that Covid-19 Test Laboratory, BioGrad Diagnostics, has adopted Matrix Gemini as its Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS). BioGrad manages client and sample data within the LIMS, driving automation and efficiency. BioGrad Diagnostics is a rapidly expanding diagnostics laboratory in the UK focused on fast turn-around COVID-19 samples....

The Chromatrap® Homogeniser Spin Column from Porvair Sciences maximises the yield and quality of viral RNA extracted from nasal and throat swab samples. The easy-to-use spin column offers a fast and efficient ‘one-stop’ alternative to using traditional syringe and needle homogenisation techniques. Employing a novel dual frit extraction design the Chromatrap® Homogeniser Spin Column reduces lysate viscosity and captures insoluble debris by centrifugation....

MolGen introduces a new RT-qPCR multiplex kit that combines the detection of five different infectious respiratory viruses, including SARS-CoV-2. The MolGen MoaA RT-q kit is a single well, multiplex RT-qPCR which targets: Influenza A virus, Influenza B virus, Respiratory syncytial viruses (RSV) type A & type B and SARS-CoV-2. These 5 targets represent the most common respiratory threats of this moment...

INTEGRA Biosciences’ VOYAGER adjustable tip spacing pipettes and EVOLVE manual pipettes are playing pivotal roles in COVID-19 testing at Children’s Minnesota, an award-winning, non-profit acute pediatric healthcare group in the ‘twin cities’ of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. These innovative tools have helped the group’s molecular laboratory to process more samples, more effectively in this unpredictable sociomedical period....

The rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2 has heavily impacted global society with high pressure of COVID-19 on public health and economics. MolGen is very proud to have assisted in relieving some of the pressure and support the testing framework. Our high-quality nucleic acid extraction kits provide laboratories worldwide with innovative solution for efficient high throughput testing possibilities...

Software which helps speed up the process of creating new diagnostic tests could help combat future pandemics, its developers say. A team of bioengineers and chemists in Scotland and China have developed a system which suggests new reaction pathways to accelerate the design and development of new diagnostic assays. The system, which is now freely available for other researchers around the world to investigate, adapt and use, can also be used to identify the early stages of non-infectious diseases...

TestRAMP, the UK marketplace for Covid-19 PCR testing, is launching a new service for genomic testing and profiling of other diseases. Mike Hudson, CEO, said “We want to put the experience of working with the UK’s top genetic and genomic laboratories to good use. Covid testing grew the capacity and expertise of PCR and genomic sequencing labs – now they are well placed to offer molecular testing for other serious diseases”...

Biotool Switzerland has added a new version of its TubeFiller automated bottle / tube filling system to their range of easy-to-use, productivity enhancing sample handling and sample preparation equipment. The TubeFiller TF 3000x is a versatile system proven to deliver true walkaway filling of tubes, well plates or bottles in any standard rack format. The TubeFiller is not only versatile but is the only automated filling instrument on the market capable of filling up to 2000 tubes or bottles per hour with good reproducibility, making it perfect for COVID-19 testing labs...

The surge in demand brought about by COVID-19 is pushing medical and non-medical laboratories to their limits, the head of a laboratory supplies company has said, with concerns that clinical laboratories have been favoured due to the pandemic. The Starlab Group, a European supplier of laboratory products with a UK division, conducted a survey of more than 200 laboratory employees from the UK, Germany, Austria, Italy and France...

FOx BIOSYSTEMS, a company on the mission to revolutionize life science and pharmacological research with innovative real-time, analysis products and the Biosensors research group at KU Leuven, focused on developing innovative bio-molecular detection concepts and miniaturized analysis systems, announced a novel, label-free assay that can characterize the polyclonal antibody response against SARS-CoV-2 directly in patient blood...

AMSBIO has introduced further essential tools for SARS-CoV-2 researchers to help decipher the COVID-19 B.1.1.529 variant. New to the AMSBIO range are recombinant proteins, easy-to-perform assay kits, Omicron pseudotyped lentiviruses and spike neutralizing antibodies for use in functional assays to block SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and ACE2 binding...

AMSBIO announce the addition of several new products to its growing range of magnetic bead based nucleic acid extraction kits for pathogens detection. The MagSi-NA Pathogens MSP (Multiple Sample Pooling) kit sets a new benchmark for automated isolation of nucleic acids (RNA and DNA) from respiratory samples. Sample pooling is useful in times of high testing and low infection prevalence where traditional sample screening methods are not cost-effective....

AES Clean Technology, a leading provider of high-performance cleanroom facilities within the pharmaceutical and bio-pharmaceutical industry, has announced a $14.2 million investment to open a new manufacturing facility located in Manheim Borough, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The new state-of-the-art facility will see 97 full-time jobs created and will serve as a manufacturing hub for its modular cleanroom systems....

“Automation and industrialization of COVID-19 PCR-testing will facilitate an immense scale-up of the global PCR-testing capacity. It will allow for a new approach to keep society open: preventive, regular testing (twice per week), which will create green bubbles and get us ahead of the curve” - Niels Kruize, CCO, MolGen. To get ahead of the curve, we will need to change our methodology of COVID-19 testing...

OxDX, a University of Oxford spin out building instant pathogen tests using super-resolution microscopy and machine learning,has raised £2.6m in pre-seed funding for its AI powered diagnostic technology that can recognise and identify specific species and strains of viruses^1,2, bacteria and other pathogens within a sample in seconds. The initial funding is co-led by IQ Capital and Ahren Innovation Capital with participation from Science Creates Ventures, and will be used to expand the team and further validate the technology with development partners...

Agilent Technologies Inc. announce that researchers from the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Brisbane, Australia, collaborated with Agilent experts on a proof-of-concept FTIR-based saliva COVID-19 testing workflow using the Agilent Cary 630 FTIR Spectrometer. The study investigated the pathophysiological response to a COVID-19 infection through ATR-FTIR spectroscopy....

The startup company Novel Concepts Medical is delighted to announce another major breakthrough in its research of COVID-19. Its novel plant-based treatment has resulted in successfully inhibiting the COVID-19 Omicron variant and blocking its connection to human cells. In case studies, volunteers had negative PCR results within 48 hours and quickly recovered from more than 16 symptoms of long COVID-19, including memory loss, loss of taste and smell, headaches, fatigue, and many symptoms that are common to both COVID-19 and the flu...