Markel UK, the specialist insurer, has launched a new liability product designed to meet the specific needs of the rapidly growing UK biomedical and life sciences sector.

Markel UK, the specialist insurer, has launched a new liability product designed to meet the specific needs of the rapidly growing UK biomedical and life sciences sector. The sector, which is well established in the UK, is expected to see strong growth, with £5bn being invested annually in pharmaceutical research and development alone. Although London and the South East remain important clusters for a wide range of life science companies, the industry is increasingly broadly based throughout the country....

Already popular in private healthcare, increasing global acceptance of refurbished equipment encourages uptake in the public sector.

Winners Recognised at the Economist’s Innovation Awards 2013

Last night a professor from Texas was recognised as the winner of the Bioscience category at The Economist’s Innovation Awards 2013. Professor James Allison was honoured for his life changing contribution to the fight against cancer. James, Professor and Chair at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre Department of Immunology, has spent the majority of his career developing the ground breaking cancer drug, ipilimumab. Ipilimumab is a cancer drug used to treat advanced melanoma....

The Pittcon marketing department is pleased to announce the release of its official conference and exposition mobile app, Pittcon 2014.

The app, available for free download for iOS and Android devices, serves as a valuable resource tool before, during and after the event. It acts as an all-inclusive real-time show guide containing details on exhibiting companies, technical sessions and short courses. The Pittcon mobile conference app was developed by ATIV Software and is built on EventPilot 7, ATIV's latest mobile platform release. This new version is not only optimized for iOS 7, but also increases attendee conversations through session commenting for in-context and on-topic social communication...

LUSH Cosmetics Awards Group £25,000 for Raising Public Awareness of Cruel Laboratory Experiments

PETA US' Laboratory Investigations Department (LID) received the prestigious LUSH Prize Public Awareness Award in a London ceremony last night. The award recognises PETA US' work to end the abuse of animals in laboratories by educating and mobilising the public through undercover investigations, whistleblower exposés, thought-provoking advertisements, scientific research, company shareholder resolutions, corporate negotiations, online campaigns and colourful protest actions. The LUSH Prize specifically recognised PETA US' recent campaigns to expose and end the use of animals in horrific military training exercises in the US and the EU, convince major airlines to stop transporting primates to laboratories and uncover invasive brain experiments on cats at a major American university...

The Gamma Scientific Laboratory (NVLAP Lab Code 200823-0) has been awarded accreditation by the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program for IES LM-80: 2008. 

IES LM-80 is an approved method for measuring lumen depreciation and maintenance of Solid State Lighting (LED) light sources, arrays and modules. The Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) developed the standard to provide an objective method to evaluate and compare LED components from different manufacturers. Lumen maintenance is the percentage of initial lumens that a light source maintains over a defined period of time.  LM-80 measures the depreciation of lumens over a specific timeframe to determine the useful life of LED components.

Advanced antibody production services for exceptional IVD assays

Medix Biochemica, producer of monoclonal antibodies for the global IVD industry and diagnostic rapid tests, presented its MedixMAB™ by Design and MedixMAB™ Manufacturing antibody production services to the European market at MEDICA 2013, Dusseldorf, Germany. With 30 years of antibody expertise, Medix offers customised services for the in vitro generation of high-performance recombinant or monoclonal antibodies and Fab fragments for superior IVD assays

Microbiology company Lab M has appointed Wendy Martindale as Director of Sales & Marketing. Wendy joins Lab M from one of Europe’s largest laboratory services companies. She is a scientist by training who has a broad range of commercial experience in scientific and laboratory markets.

Wyatt Technology Instrumentation Employed by the Medical Research Council to Perform Breakthrough Research into Human Health and Disease

Wyatt Technology Corporation, the world leader in absolute macromolecular characterization instrumentation and software, today announced that its technology is being used by the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) to make advancements in tackling specific problems in human health and disease such as understanding different biophysical processes, including mechanisms of viral diseases and immunity....

International law firm, Osborne Clarke has advised US-based client Takeda Ventures, Inc. (TVI), the corporate venture arm of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, on its investment into the €20 million (US$27.6 million) series B equity financing round of Austria-based Hookipa Biotech AG.

Existing investors Sofinnova Partners and Forbion Capital Partners led the financing with TVI, Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, and BioMedPartners joining the syndicate as new investors. Janita Good, Partner and Head of Life-Sciences and Healthcare in the UK led the Osborne Clarke team assisted by Associate Director Thomas Colmer, Corporate and Senior Associate Clare Greatbanks, IP and Commercial. The team were supported by Austrian counsel Christoph Brogyányi, Partner Dorder Brugger Jordis...

Improved drug delivery and compound identification with the Cellaxess technology

Cellectricon, a leading provider of advanced cell-based screening technologies and services, presented new data at Neuroscience 2013. In a series of poster presentations, Cellectricon demonstrated how its technology can be applied effectively for drug discovery, particularly in relation to cytoskeletal disorders and neurodegenerative diseases.

Utrecht University Appoints Makarov Professor of High Resolution Mass Spectrometry Chair established to advance large protein research

The Executive Board of Utrecht University, by special appointment, named Alexander Makarov, Ph.D, professor of high resolution mass spectrometry at the Bijvoet Center of the Department of Chemistry. Makarov is Director of Global Research, Life Science Mass Spectrometry (LSMS) for Thermo Fisher Scientific. “I hope this appointment will become a bridge that connects academia to industry,” Makarov said. “I want to make it easier for students and industrial scientists to learn from each other...

In a move that reflects continued sales growth in Mexico, Malvern Instruments has opened a new office in Mexico City.

Operational since August 2013, the Mexico office provides both pre- and after- sales support to a growing customer base. It is also the venue for an increasing number of advanced training courses and seminars, and is part of Malvern’s operational expansion in Mexico and throughout Latin America as a whole. The opening of the office in Mexico comes just a year after the establishment of a sales and applications laboratory in Sao Paolo, Brazil...

End-of-year savings to be made on DiaSorin Blood DNA extraction kits for molecular confirmation of genetic disorders

The DiaSorin Arrow™ Blood DNA 200 extraction assays, that provide a highly purified DNA preparation, reduce inhibition in downstream analysis and ensure accurate and sensitive confirmation of Factor V Leiden thrombophilia, cystic fibrosis and other genetic disorders, are now available from approved DiaSorin distributors at special end-of-year rates. Molecular testing for genetic mutations, that cause conditions such as Factor V Leiden thrombophilia and cystic fibrosis, provide valuable confirmation of diagnosis and enables carriers of the mutated genes to be identified.  The performance of these molecular tests can be affected by a number of factors, including the quality of the DNA preparation...

InnoCore Pharmaceuticals today announced that it has signed an exclusive License and Collaboration Agreement with Allergan, Inc. (NYSE: AGN), a multi-specialty health care company headquartered in Irvine, California.

Under the agreement, the companies will expand their existing collaboration and jointly continue to develop long-acting ocular drug delivery products for the treatment of ophthalmic diseases. Utilizing its patented SynBiosys® polymeric drug delivery platform, InnoCore will formulate Allergan’s proprietary drugs into pharmaceutical products expected to be capable of sustained release for many months following a single ocular injection. The SynBiosys® drug delivery platform is based on novel biodegradable multi-block co-polymers with unique molecular architectures that allow precise and site-specific delivery of drugs for predetermined periods of time, ranging from weeks to many months...

Msoft Blood-Tracking Technology Snapped Up By The Royal Melbourne Hospital

A leading British healthcare software company is to introduce its innovative blood-tracking technology to hospitals in Australia for the first time. The Royal Melbourne is the first hospital in Australia to introduce MSoft eSolutions’ cutting edge Blood360 technology which is in widespread use in the UK – where it is known as Bloodhound. Blood360 controls access to and from all blood fridges with rigorous security and safety ensuring that only approved staff are allowed to access blood. The firm’s blood-tracking solution provides positive identification of users and patients and in-depth auditing of all bloods across each and every stage of the transfusion process – to help get the right blood into the right patient...

Scientific Laboratory Supplies (SLS), the UK’s largest independent supplier of scientific equipment, chemicals and consumables is pleased to announce its new partnership with Bactest for the Speedy Breedy portable respirometer.

The telescope door of NASA’s Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) equipped with HORIBA Jobin Yvon diffraction gratings was opened on July 17, 2013.

The IRIS spectrograph has begun to observe with unprecedented detail the lowest parts of the sun's atmosphere, known as the interface region. “The quality of images and spectra we are receiving from IRIS is amazing.” said Dr. Alan Title, IRIS principal investigator. IRIS data will allow scientists to study and better understand the energy transport on the sun. The diffraction gratings for the IRIS spectrograph have been produced by HORIBA Jobin Yvon S.A.S.Longjumeau – France...

Lab Innovations - the UK’s only show dedicated to the latest laboratory technology & consumables, analytical & biotech equipment – which took place last week at the NEC, Birmingham, was a huge success.

Unique technology for virus screening in a single comprehensive assay to overcome the current limitations with predefined sets of known viruses  

Covance Inc. (NYSE: CVD), one of the world's largest and most comprehensive drug development companies, and PathoQuest, a pioneer in the field of pathogen detection, today announce an exclusive agreement to collaborate in providing Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) based biosafety assessments. This innovative biosafety testing approach, combined with Covance’s regulatory expertise, provides a flexible testing solution to all biotherapeutic clients and makes biologic medicines safer....

Key European Biotech Partnering Conference Opens In Vienna, LISAvienna is organising the largest exhibition to date of domestic life sciences 

The most important event on the annual calendar of the European biotech industry opens today in Vienna: BIO-Europe 2013. The largest European biotech partnering conference is taking place this year with LISAvienna as the local organiser. More than 1,800 companies will be represented, making this a record-breaking year for participation. In addition to the 116 Austrian companies, 81 of which are based in Vienna, this year marks the first time that academic institutions will have the opportunity to present their research findings. Fittingly, there will be numerous panel discussions that focus on technology transfer and translational research...

Presented by Dr Elad Katz, a senior scientist at AMSBIO, a new on-demand webinar explores the potential of 3D cell-based models for regenerative medicine and drug discovery.

Two-dimensional (2D) cell cultures have provided a number of breakthroughs for understanding human tissues and diseases, as well as for discovering and testing new drugs. However, 2D cell cultures have limitations, such as limited cell-cell and cell-matrix contacts, flat cellular morphologies and a lack of realistic mass transfer gradients. As a result, technologies that facilitate growing cells in three-dimensional (3D) configurations have been developed to make cellular behaviors in vitro better resemble the body...