Markes International’s Select-eV variable-energy ion-source technology has received an Honourable Mention at the Pittcon Editors’ Awards, following its introduction earlier this year.

Pittcon, The Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy, is widely regarded as one of the world’s best trade shows for innovations in analytical chemistry. It gives attendees the opportunity to observe many analytical instrument developments, all under one roof. This year, the conference attracted 16,200 attendees, including 935 exhibitors from 32 countries across 1,763 booths....

SP Scientific has announced further investment into its state-of-the-art training and demonstration laboratory facility at its Warminster, PA site.

The demonstration laboratory will now be able to offer customers and potential clients the opportunity to book an appointment to test / demo SP Scientific’s latest products including the AdVantage Pro, Benchtop Pro and LyoStar 3 Freeze Dryer with SMART™, ControLyo™ and TDLAS.  If required, specialty items can be brought in upon customer request. The 1200 square foot facility will also continue to...

Nottingham-based Scientific Laboratory Supplies Ltd (SLS), the UK’s largest independent supplier of scientific equipment, chemicals and consumables has been confirmed as the single source distributor for the public sector Laboratory Consumables contract by UK Shared Business Services Ltd (UK SBS).

Under the contract, which SLS won ahead of two strong global competitor organisations, the company will manage the delivery of all consumable items to all participating public body organisations. The company expects to recruit a minimum of 5 internal staff and 4 external support staff as a direct result of the contract win. UK SBS is a key vehicle for meeting the challenge facing UK public services to increase efficiency...

Stepping up calls for a public interest test on major takeovers, Britain’s largest union, Unite expressed fears that Pfizer ‘could be back’ in the coming months despite the company conceding defeat in its takeover bid of AstraZeneca.

Under Takeover Panel rules, talks on a tie up could be reignited in three months if AstraZeneca invites Pfizer back to the negotiating table. If that does not happen, then Pfizer can make a new unsolicited bid in November later this year. Commenting, Tony Burke Unite assistant general secretary said: “Pfizer failed to convince hardly anyone that their bid was good for science and would secure skilled jobs and...

Seward Ltd., manufacturer of the world leading range of original Stomacher^® paddle blenders and accessories used in sample preparation for microbiological analysis, confirms the use of its Stomacher^® in USDA meat speciation protocols [1].

Following recent high profile meat provenance scandals, Seward has noted an increase in enquiries on the application of its technology for the delivery of contamination free, viable antigen samples. The complexity and globalisation of the food industry makes the management of the food chain from farm to fork increasingly difficult. The contamination of meat ingredients with unintended species in the UK has been very costly in reputations and profits....

HORIBA UK Ltd, Medical Division, announces that Coventry University’s Department of Biomolecular and Sports Science has recently installed new HORIBA haematology and clinical chemistry analysers to enhance the future employability of its students.

In recognition of NHS requirements, Coventry can now offer its Biomedical Science degree students practical experience of real-life clinical instrumentation and applications. Consequently, this enables these future Biomedical Scientists to become truly enthusiastic about subjects that may otherwise seem dry theoretically...

Intomics A/S enters a new collaboration with a leading Swiss-based biopharmaceutical company to accelerate a better understanding of the pathological processes underlying human neurodegenerative diseases at the molecular level through systems biology.

Intomics A/S and Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd have entered a new collaboration with the aim of developing a systems biology view of neurodegeneration. Intomics will assist Actelion with expertise, experience and tools in analyzing and advancing knowledge based on data specifically related to neurodegeneration...

XEI Scientific Inc, manufacturer of the popular EVACTRON® De-Contaminator™ Plasma Cleaning System for electron microscopes and other vacuum chambers, was awarded a US patent on May 6, 2014, for a device to load TEM sample holders into a vacuum chamber. 

XEI is pleased to announce that the company has been granted a new US patent # US8716676B2 which describes a new device to load TEM sample holders into a vacuum chamber. It was invented by invented by George Safar of the XEI development team. This device allows the TEM sample stage and holder to be easily inserted into XEI’s desktop Evactron® CombiClean™ plasma cleaner without fear of bumping the end of the holder or specimen when it enters...

Studylog Animal Study Software Named Best of Show Finalist at the 2014 Bio-IT World Conference

LGC today announced that they have been awarded a two-year contract by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) to provide DNA Testing Services to assist with the identification of historic remains recovered from battlefields and aircraft crash sites.

The contract let on behalf of the Ministry of Defence Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre (JCCC) will assist the work undertaken by the JCCC’s Commemorations team in their efforts to positively identify the remains of British Service personnel recovered from battlefields, or other sites, arising from conflicts in the 20th Century....

Malvern Instruments Ltd. (Malvern, UK) announced today that it has entered into an agreement with GE Healthcare Life Sciences  to acquire the company’s  MicroCal™ microcalorimetry business.  Financial terms were not disclosed. The acquisition, which is subject to regulatory approvals, is expected to complete in the third quarter of 2014.

MicroCal has a 30-year history of developing and supplying easy-to-use microcalorimeters. These systems are used extensively to study proteins and other biomolecules in drug discovery and development. The acquisition of MicroCal will further strengthen Malvern’s rapidly expanding portfolio of analytical solutions for customers in core pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical markets. Within Malvern, MicroCal will retain its key location in Northampton, Massachusetts and will become an integral part of the Malvern business.

Dr Paul Gleeson and Prof Chanin Nantasenamat on Dotmatics’ Tools and their Research.

Dotmatics, a leading provider of scientific informatics solutions and services to the academic, pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, reported today that its premium data analysis and visualisation software, Vortex, is being used by university research groups in Thailand to further their scientific research in diverse fields. Dotmatics’ Vortex is designed to assist scientists gain a deeper understanding of their data and help to draw meaningful conclusions in an efficient way...

FFEI Life Science has successfully concluded phase I of the BiognostiX project with a symposium to share the results of this 3-year EU funded FP7 research programme.

Delegates to the event, held at the Hauser Forum, Cambridge, UK on Thursday 27 February. Led by FFEI, the BiognostiX Consortium has developed a radical new approach to performing diagnostic tests at point-of-use, with potential applications in veterinary, agri-food and human diagnostics. The BiognostiX technology uses a multiplex microfluidic platform and newly invented Immuno-Ink to deliver fast, flexible, single-use tests in a format that anyone can use...

A trend in bioanalysis is moving toward methods that require higher levels of sensitivity and reproducibility with decreasing sample volumes. To meet these needs, Thermo Fisher Scientific has introduced Thermo Scientific SOLAµ solid phase extraction (SPE) micro elution plates.

Using award-winning SOLA SPE technology, SOLAµ plates are designed to deliver robust, reproducible processing at elution volumes as low as 25 µL. In company-conducted experiments, the new SPE plates have improved sensitivity over comparable SPE products as much as twenty-fold due to improved pre-concentration while maintaining high levels of reproducibility...

Analytik Jena AG wants to expand its business with analytical measuring technology and Life Science products in the Middle East region, one of the fastest-growing markets in the world in this field.

For its core segment Analytical Instrumentation, the Company added a renowned new distributor in Neo-Science & Group Co. "We have gained a very experienced dealer and specialists in our essential technology segments who will support our customers in the four largest markets of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain with a sizable employee team," said Torsten Olschewski, General Manager of the Analytical Instrumentation business unit at Analytik Jena AG...

Patent expiry and increasing generic competition is expected to make a handful of mega deals happen 

The challenges posed by expiring patents, the global economic slowdown, and price premium pressures are forcing the pharmaceutical and biotech industry to restructure and streamline strategies to boost profitability. Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) have become the preferred approach to counter low margins as they give access to new markets while creating more revenue pools and, to some extent, compensating for depletion in the research and development pipeline...

When facing the unique requirements of the scientific, industrial and healthcare sectors, sometimes something more than an off-the-shelf solution is required.

Bibby Scientific designs and manufacturers a diverse selection of bespoke equipment, with each instrument specifically tailored to meet the needs of individual customers. By using its own proven designs as a basis and adding alterations, Bibby can produce solutions which directly meet with customer specs, ensuring that they get the results they require in the most accurate and reliable way possible...

TAP Biosystems (now part of the Sartorius Stedim Biotech Group), a leading supplier of innovative cell culture and fermentation systems for life science applications, today announced that it will be co-presenting a new bioprocess webinar with KBI Biopharma, a major biopharm contract development and manufacturing organisation.

Wednesday June 11th 2014 at 4pm BST / 5pm CEST / 8am PDT / 11am EDT.

The live event will detail how to use the ambr15™ automated microbioreactor system to speed up early process development of biologics. Bioprocessing experts, Dr Shahid Rameez, Process Development Scientist at KBI Biopharma and Joe Jirka, ambr Product Specialist at TAP Biosystems, will present technical data on the use of the ambr15 micro bioreactor system, as a small scale cell culture mimic...

Counter Terror Expo 2014, held on 29th and 30th April at Olympia London, proved to be as successful as ever, attended by some 8,691 industry leaders and delegations from across the world.

Firmly established as the leading international event of its kind, this year’s show – the 6th edition – saw a 10% rise in pre-registrations compared to 2013. As one visitor commented, “Counter Terror is an essential day for me. It prepares my business for the year ahead by allowing me to research new products and services as well as getting updated on new legislation...

Drawing upon over 10 years’ experience - Warwick Analytical Service (WAS) is able to provide high quality laboratory analytical services for analysis of environmental samples from their facilities at the University of Warwick Science Park (Coventry, UK).

Driven by increasing governmental legislation – monitoring of contamination of air, land and water samples now needs to be undertaken by any responsible organisation producing waste and/or emissions. These monitoring processes are important not only for legislative compliance but also for assessing the risk that human activities pose to the natural environment...

Markel UK, the specialist insurer, has further developed the biomedical and life sciences liability product that it launched in November last year.

Its new combined policy adds specialist property damage and business interruption covers and is designed to meet the specific needs of the rapidly growing UK biomedical and life sciences sector. New coverage includes research and development protection, contamination and deviation in controlled environments within the property damage and business interruption sections. The existing protection offered for liability exposures includes injury, financial loss, clinical trials, employers’ liability, entity defence and directors’ and officers’ liability...

The Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh (SSP), one of two Pittcon conference and exposition sponsors, is pleased to announce the 2015 Pittsburgh Spectroscopy Award recipient. Alfred G. Redfield, Professor of Biochemistry and Physics, Emeritus, Brandeis University (Massachusetts).

This prestigious award, established in 1957, honors an individual who has made outstanding contributions in the field of spectroscopy. The award committee selected Redfield based on his many accomplishments in the advanced understanding, practical developments and applications in the field of nuclear magnetic resonance especially in nuclear-spin relaxation, as well as his leadership role in the scientific community and mentorship of young scientists...