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...

TTP Labtech’s arktic system chosen for technical excellence and provision of long term sample security

The new phase of expansion for Institut Curie’s Paris-based biobank required a solution for advanced patient sample monitoring, as well as efficient sample storage and preparation across numerous tissue formats, including tumour, RNA, DNA, protein and blood. As part of this upgrade Institut Curie announced today an investment in arktic^®, a flexible, modular -80°C sample storage system from a leading technology provider, TTP Labtech....

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...

Pharmig Annual Microbiology Conference covers pharmaceuticals and medical devices

Cherwell Laboratories, specialist suppliers of environmental monitoring and process validation solutions, will once again be supporting Pharmig’s Annual Microbiology Conference at The Oxford Belfry Hotel, Thame. The annual conference, to be held on 20^th & 21^st November, provides the opportunity for individuals to keep up-to-date with the latest hot topics in microbiology. This year the Pharmig conference has presentations and discussions on regulation, investigation, best practice and risk management for microbiology, covering sterile and non-sterile pharmaceuticals and medical devices...

Microsemi CRP POC analyser correlates exceptionally well with routine laboratory methodologies

HORIBA UK Ltd, Medical Division, today announces the successful outcome of an evaluation study of a point-of-care (POC) full blood count and whole blood CRP comparison study of its Microsemi CRP analyser. The scientific study was undertaken by Synergy Health Laboratory Services and confirms that this easy-to-use POC analyser demonstrates excellent correlation with routine laboratory methodologies...

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...

Specialised Imaging Ltd. has recently delivered a 16-channel SIM-D framing camera capable of capturing images at 1,000,000,000 frames per second, with gating down to 3ns, to the UK’s National Physical Laboratory, which is located in Teddington, Middlesex.

The National Physical Laboratory is the UK’s National Measurement Institute, and is a world-leading centre of excellence in developing and applying the most accurate measurement standards, science and technology available. Gianluca Memoli, Senior Research Scientist at NPL, who is using the SIMD-16 for his cavitation research, says: “I particularly like the possibility of adjusting the timing of each single frame without paying with pixel resolution,....

Thermo Fisher Scientific has developed a simple and economical size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) analysis method that enables nuclear power plants (NPPs) with pressurized water reactors to determine low concentrations of polyacrylic acid (PAA) in secondary feed water containing ethanolamine (ETA) and hydrazine.

Application Note 1058: Determination of Polyacrylic Acid in Nuclear Power Plant Pressurized Water Reactor Secondary Feed Water demonstrates that a SEC column separation with detection at 200 nm can determine PAA with a method detection limit of 2.6 μg/L. This method uses water as the eluent to maximize sensitivity and eliminate the need for eluent preparation...

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...

JPK Instruments, a world-leading manufacturer of nanoanalytic instrumentation for research in life sciences and soft matter, reports on how AFM and advanced fluorescence microscopy is being applied in the study of biological membranes in the Centre de Biochimie Structurale (CBS, CNRS and INSERM affiliated) in Montpellier (France).

The CBS includes a research group focused on single molecule physics. Dr Pierre-Emmanuel Milhiet runs a team which applies AFM and advanced fluorescence microscopies (single molecule tracking and single-molecule localization microscopy or SMLM) in the study of both structure and dynamics of biological membranes. Speaking about his work, Dr Milhiet says "One of our aims is to decipher the molecular mechanisms involved in the lateral segregation of membrane components using artificial bilayers and intact cell membranes. Part of our activities is also to develop new methodologies and we have recently mounted a new setup combining a JPK AFM and home-made SMLM (especially PALM and STORM)...

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...

Anachem's Good Pipetting Practice programme covers a range of topics designed to ensure your team has the pipetting skills needed to produce consistent, reliable results. 

Drawing on Anachem’s and Rainin’s 40 years of expertise in liquid handling and pipette service, the Good Pipetting Practice seminar focuses on five key areas. These include Pipetting Ergonomics, the Evaluation & Selection of the Right Tools for Your Liquid Handling Work, Pipetting Techniques and The Importance of Calibration & Routine Maintenance. As well as outlining how to optimise workflows, Good Pipetting Practice also focuses on how ergonomics can influence experimental data and pipette users’ health. It points out the risks associated with un-calibrated pipettes and the role of routine checks vs. professional service...

OHAUS, a leading worldwide manufacturer of scales and balances, offers the Pioneer™ Series of Analytical and Precision Balances which are ideal for routine weighing in a variety of laboratory applications. 

The Pioneer™ Series of balances comprises of a wide variety of models meeting simple laboratory needs. The selection of capacities and readabilities combined with several application modes and the balance's performance makes it the best choice for basic laboratory requirements. The Pioneer™ draftshield has been designed with all glass panels including three sliding doors, providing scientists, researchers and laboratory personnel convenient access to the weighing chamber....

Forensics Europe Expo 29-30 April 2014, is the only dedicated international forum for the entire forensics sector and supply chain to source forensic products, equipment and services, as well as providing the definitive source of education, best practice, training and networking.

MicroSolv Technology Corporation, USA manufacture the unique Cogent TYPE-C™ silica hydride HPLC phases.

These phases show improved column bleed and increased stability over traditional silica based phases. In addition to the unique Cogent TYPE-C™ silica hydride HPLC phases MicroSolv also manufacture a range of high purity Type B silica columns including longer chain C27 and C30 phases. A wide range of application notes are available and summaries of 3 of these are below. Analysis of Tetrahydrocannabinol Metabolite in Urine on Cogent Phenyl Hydride. 9-Carboxy-11-nor-delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol is the main metabolite of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), formed in the body after consumption of cannabis...

Thermo Fisher Scientific has developed an on-line solid phase extraction (SPE)high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with ultraviolet absorbance detection method to determine the 14 explosives and related compounds specified in U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency Method 8330A in environmental water samples. Application Note 1066: Sensitive Determination of Explosive Compounds in Waterdemonstrates that this approach eliminates the labor associated with off-line extraction and provides a convenient method that achieves reduced method detection limits (less than 0.35 μg/mL) when determining these compounds in water...

Researchers at the Netherlands Cancer Institute (Nederlands Kanker Instituut, NKI) are benefitting from the advanced, multi-parameter characterisation offered by Avacta Analytical’s Optim^® technology for the study of novel proteins.

Dr Anastassis Perrakis, Principle Investigator in the Institute’s Structural Biology Group, explained: “We are interested in the mechanisms controlling a variety of different cellular processes, using in vitro protein characterisation to look at how proteins interact with other proteins and DNA. In addition to traditional biochemical assays, we perform a large number of biophysical experiments to help us understand these molecular interaction....

The only chiller specially designed for cooling rotary evaporators.

Highest cooling capacity at minimal bench space – now for 20 percent less! Huber has significantly lowered the price of its RotaCool chiller, the best solution for cooling rotary evaporators on the market. The RotaCool is now available for only 3.780, - EUR, this is a reduction in price of almost 20 percent. The RotaCool is the only chiller designed especially for rotary evaporators. The space saving concept of the device due to its “L” shape design is unique. The evaporator is placed directly on the RotaCool; no additional space on the laboratory table is required...

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.

Thermo Fisher Scientific has developed a reliable method for determining phthalates in alcoholic beverages by single-quadrupole gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

The method met the special testing requirements set by the China method GB/T 21911-2008 for determining phthalates in food. Application Note 10339, Determination of Phthalates in Liquor Beverages by Single Quadrupole GC-MS, describes a sensitive and accurate single-quadrupole GC-MS method for determining levels of phthalate plasticizers in alcoholic beverages. The method is sensitive, rapid, and accurate, and covers a wide linear range to meet the need for trace level detection of phthalate esters in different types of beverages....

NanoSight reports on how Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis, NTA, has been used to demonstrate the product performance of BD Medical - Pharmaceutical Systems' novel cross-linked silicone coating,BD XSi™, used in BD's prefillable syringe BD Neopak XSi™

Silicone oil is commonly used as a lubricant coating in prefilled syringes (PFS) and is becoming one of the most highly discussed topics in the PFS market, particularly for developers of highly sensitive biotech drugs. In specific biological drug cases, unexpected drug-container interactions have been reported that were potentially attributed to or potentially associated with sub-visible particles generated from the lubricating silicone layer...