Eksigent may be one of the smaller players in the analytical equipment market, but they never seem to disappoint. They always come out with interesting new products. This one is no exception.

Eksigent Corporation out of Dublin, California will be showing their new HPLC during Pittcon. Called the ExpressHT-Ultra HPLC system, it is claimed to provide short cycle times and high throughput for LC/MS studies in the Pharmacokinetics and Drug Metabolism areas. The cycle times are said to be as short as 60 seconds. The machine can run six 96-well sample plates overnight.

It has been designed for use in hi thruput bioanalysis. Eksigent scientists say the reproducibility is excellent and saves up to 95% on solvents. For those of us who are hitting Pittcon, it should be an interesting product to check out.

Eksigent was founded in May of 2000. They have partnered with many of the major players in their market, including Beckman Coulter, ABI, Merck, Thermo, Bruker and Chiral Technologies. They have a diverse product line which includes a Nano LC for Proteomics, the express-HT for DMPK, express LC for pharmaceuticals, an express-RT for Reaction Monitoring and a NanoFlow metering system, as well as their well-known line of ChromXP HPLC columns.

ExpressHT-Ultra HPLC system in action    

Click the above link to check out the new Ultra in action.

For more general information on Eksigent go to their website at www.eksigent.com

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Promega announces launch of new StemElite ID System

Promega, out of Madison, Wisconsin just announced the launch of a new product called the StemElite ID System. It was designed for use in human cell line authentication in research applications. It will allow scientists to validate the authenticity and purity of their human cell lines before submitting their results for publishing. Since cross-contamination between cell lines is a potentially serious problem, Promega feels that StemElite ID should give scientists more confidence in the integrity of their results.

It is similar to the Promega PowerPlex in that it incorporates the short tandem repeat analysis technology (STR) that is already in use world-wide for genetic identity in forensics labs. The kit provides the reagents needed for co-amplification and three color detection of DNA fragments in a single tube.

Promega was founded in 1978, and is currently still privately held. They have over 900 employees world-wide and sell in excess of 2,000 different products. Their products are used in Genomics, Proteomics and Cell Analysis. They are also used to support Molecular Diagnostics. They are said to hold in excess of 200 patents in areas such as Nucleic Acid Purification, Human ID, Bioluminescence and Cell Biology.

According to their website, their sales are over $220 million per year, and they invest 11% of their revenues in R & D, which is higher than average.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

RainDance Technologies announce their new Sequence Enrichment Solution.

RainDance Technoologies RDT 1000 System

RainDance Technologies, based out of Lexington, Massachusetts designs, manufactures and sells microdroplet based solutions for use in lab research in life science.

Recently, at the 2009 Advances in Genome Biology and Technology Conference, RainDance announced they have begun accepting orders for the RDT 1000 system and have actually begun commercial production of the product components for shipment during the first quarter of this year.

The RainDance product incorporates their RainStorm Technology for targeted sequencing applications of the human genome. The reason the product is called Rainstorm lies in the way it works. Their technology creates picoliter sized droplets at a rate of 3,000 per second, or just over 10 million per hour! Each droplet is the equivalent of an individual test tube, and can contain a single molecule, reaction or cell.

With that kind of speed, I guess it would not be far-fetched to say that they are raining on their competitors parade.

The high speeds and tiny volumes allow the RainDance product to have increased thruput compared with today’s current platforms. Obviously, the end result means an increase in efficiency and precision and a reduced volume of reagents being used by their customers.

RainDance Technologies was founded in 2004, and is currently based out of Lexington, Massachusetts, but I believe they were originally located in Guilford, Connecticut at one time. RainDance was founded by scientists from Harvard University, The Medical Research Centre in Cambridge, England, and the ESPCI in Paris.

Their initial target market will focus on the sequencing of the human genome. The RDT 1000 system is expected to enable the high-resolution analysis of genetic variation between individuals and populations at a level unmatched by anything in the market today.

For more detailed information, check out the RainDance website at www.raindancetech.com.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

New Desktop Nanofabrication System announced by NanoInk.

24 Feb 09 | Filed in New Products with 0 Comments | Edit

NanoInk DPN 5000 Dip Pen Nanolithography System

Nanoink has just introduced their next generation Dip Pen Nanolithography system for desktop nanofabrication. Dubbed the DPN 5000, it evolved from their older NSCRIPTOR DPN system. The new version has greater control and performance than the old version.

The DPN 5000 offers versatile nanopatterning capabilities as well as high performance Atomic Force Microscopy imaging for real-time characterization of the deposited patterns.

The new system has a new ultra-low noise scanner with closed loop flexur technology to make for accurate and repeatable nanoscale patterns. For subsequent imaging of substrates they have a low coherence laser with a reduced laser spot size. That guarantees high quality lateral force imaging. Also their enhanced lithography software, InkCAD 4.0 has improved control of tip based patterning, along with nanoscale mapping and positioning. That allows users to precisely position multiple features even if created from different materials.

The DPN 5000 has a full range of enabling MEMS based ink delivery consumable items such as single probes, 1D passive probe arrays, individually actuated Active Pen Arrays, 2D probe arrays with up to 55,000 pens, inkwells for coating tips, and substrates to be written on. As a result, researchers can create nanostructures using proteins, DNA, nanoparticles and polymers.

NanoInk specializes in nanometer scale manufacturing and applications for both the life science and semiconductor industries. They are located North of Chicago in the new Illinois Science and Technology Park. They have over 140 patents and applications filed world wide.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Biotage to showcase several new products at upcoming Pittcon show.

Biotage will be showcasing their new products the ISOLUTE SLE+ and EVOLUTE at the upcoming Pittcon show in Chicago starting March 9, 2009.

Biotage says that ISOLUTE SLE+ supported Liquid Extraction plates will rapidly replace traditional protein precipitation, liquid-liquid extraction and solid phase extraction protocols because chemists are able to develop methods quickly with analyte recovery and well-to-well reproducibility. Problems such as emulsion formulation and automated pipetting of liquid layers will also be avoided, since the two phases do not come into direct contact. It will eliminate all off-line steps and is said to cut sample preparation time in half.

At the same time that Biotage is showing the ISOLUTE SLE+, the EVOLUTE series of sample prep products for the quick removal of phospholipids, salts and proteins in bioanalytical samples will be shown. These products will allow scientists to use a generic approach for a wide range of compounds, thereby reducing method development time while producing clean extracts.

The EVOLUTE ABN is an advanced water-wettable polymer-based sorbent that extracts acidic, basic and neutral analytes from biological fluids and other aqueous matrices. Developed for analyte quantification by LC/MS/MS, EVOLUT ABN’s optimized pore structure minimizes the retention of high molecular weight endogenous materials present in complex sample matrices.

EVOLUTE CX is a mixed-mode resin-based SPE sorbent that extracts a wide range of basic drugs from biological fluid samples. EVOLUTE CX removes matrix components such as proteins, salts, non-ionizable interferences, and phospholipids, delivering cleaner extracts with reproducible recoveries for accurate quantitation.

Biotage is Headquartered in Uppsala Sweden and their products are used in a wide range of applications including Medicinal Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry and Process Development.

If you would like to see these new products in action, Biotage will be at Booth 367 3 at Pittcon 2009 from March 8 to March 12, 2009.

For more information on Biotage, you can go to their website at www.biotage.com.