Genevac reports on a protocol that describes a rapid, safe technique for drying oligonucleotide and DNA samples.

DNA and oligonucleotide samples are sensitive and care needs to be exercised during concentration. Research done at the Welcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics (UK) shows that the Genevac EZ-2 evaporator is an ideal tool for concentrating SNP and oligonucleotides in microplates when preparing samples for microarraying and for Sequenon analysis. Compared to traditional methods, using the EZ-2 evaporator is shown to significantly speed up concentration rates, eliminate potential sources of damage to samples and also improve final sample quality...

Thermo Fisher Scientific is pleased to announce the introduction of new HPLC and UHPLC column, Thermo Scientific GlycanPac AXR-1 column, for glycan analysis.

This new column offers extremely high-resolution separations based on charge, isomerism, and size and are designed to facilitate both high resolution glycan profile characterization and quantification. Until now, glycans isomers could not be separated by conventional HPLC, said Ilze Birznieks, Product Marketing Manager for Biocolumns at Thermo Fisher. This new column helps users achieve greater resolution of glycans using HPLC, providing easier profile characterization...

Brookfield Engineering Laboratories has taken the ease of touch-screen technology and applied it to the DV-II Series, their best-selling viscometer.

By merging the DV-II and touch screen technology into the New DV2T, Brookfield has created the most advanced user experience in viscosity testing and measurement. The New DV2T Viscometer features a 5-inch full color display to guide users through test creation and data gathering for fast and easy viscosity measurements....

Genevac announces eXalt - an exciting new non-destructive evaporation technology developed with partners in the field of pharmaceutical small molecule crystallisation.

eXalt has found application in labs that perform tasks including first time crystallisation of amorphous forms, recrystallisation of samples which have only a few known forms, removing a hydrate, solvent screening studies to find the most suitable conditions to take forward in development, high throughput co-crystallisation screens and studies to confirm stable isoforms. eXalt enables a wide range of solvents and multiple actives to be evaporated all at the same slow rate, and under the same conditions, giving the user unprecedented control of the crystallisation process...

Unlike standard parabolic mirrors, Off-Axis Paraboloids (OAP) direct and focus incident collimated light at a specific angle, allowing unrestricted access to the focal point as well as reducing the size and minimising the weight of an optical design.

Working with the highest quality optical glasses - Optical Surfaces Ltd. produce standard OAP from 60mm to 600 mm in diameter. Benefiting from a uniquely stable manufacturing environment, and a highly skilled team of engineers and craftsmen, Optical Surfaces is able to routinely produce OAPs with surface accuracy to lambda/20 (peak-to-valley) depending upon off-axis angles....

Thermo Fisher Scientific has developed a rapid and robust high-performance anion-exchange chromatography

With pulsed amperometric detection method for the accurate determination of common sugars in acid-hydrolyzed biomass samples with high carbohydrate concentrations. Application Update 192: Carbohydrate Determination of Biofuel Samples demonstrates that this approach has a linear range suitable for handling high-concentration biomass samples with minimal sample treatment. This new method is fast, provides good sensitivity, has consistent response, and can be routinely used to determine carbohydrates in the feedstock for biofuel production...

AMSBIO has expanded its portfolio of stable cell lines. 

The new cell lines express endogenous or recombinant proteins and are available in a ready-to-use format to facilitate your research efforts. Using AMSBIO stable cell lines not only provides an optimized solution for manufacture of therapeutic and diagnostic protein, but also for applications in drug screening, pharmacological research and toxicological studies. The extensive portfolio of ready-to-use stable cell lines available from AMSBIO includes: Receptors; Ion channels; Cell signaling; Phosphodiesterases; Stem cell related; Fluorescent; TetR ; Luciferase ; CRE recombinase / reporter ; p53 and DNA repair gene knock-down cell lines...

Ultra-sensitive PointMan™ enables blood sampling instead of tissue biopsies for cancer patient mutation status assessment

Copley Scientific has launched two new products relating to metered dose inhalers (MDIs).

Copley Scientific has launched two new products to enable testing in accordance with methods described in a new US Pharmacopoeia (USP) monograph relating to metered dose inhalers (MDIs). The USP monograph, <1602>, which is currently in draft form, addresses the testing of MDIs with spacers and valved holding chambers (VHCs); devices that make MDIs more suitable for paediatric patients and those with poor coordination...

An independent report demonstrates how the Asynt Vortex overhead stirrer system provides an effective tool for rapid screening of a range of reaction conditions in parallel - an essential for efficient process development.

The Asynt Vortex overhead stirrer system is designed to enable three reactions to be stirred simultaneously using a single overhead stirrer motor and heated to temperatures to over 200°C. In the report - researchers evaluate the consistency of mixing delivered by a Vortex system controlling three reaction vessels by measuring the bulk mixing and extraction times in each vessel and comparing this data with a stand-alone vessel....

Air Science provides containment solutions to meet any analytical need.

The NEW Purair Flex provides numerous performance advantages over the competition, including: More Volume. The Purair Flex Film Isolator features an innovative curved film design that provides more working volume than any other Glove Bag on the market. Versatile Tapered. Sleeve / Glove Options. Unlike other glove bags, the double O-ring design on the standard polyurethane cuffs allow users to quickly and easily change gloves to meet a variety of dexterity needs...

Raster Orbital Scanning Technology from Ocean Optics Recognised at TASIA Awards

The Raster Orbital Scanning (ROS) feature of the IDRaman family of products from Ocean Optics has been recognized as one of 2013’s 15 best innovation technologies by The Analytical Scientist magazine, an industry publication. ROS is a novel Raman spectroscopy sampling technique that helps to derive more accurate and comprehensive measurement results. The IDRaman mini handheld Raman spectrometer and the IDRaman reader integrated Raman spectrometer both feature ROS...

A technical article is available from Genevac that describes a rapid, safe technique for drying oligonucleotide and DNA samples.

DNA and oligonucleotide samples are sensitive and care needs to be exercised during concentration. Research done at the Welcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics (UK) shows that the Genevac EZ-2 evaporator is an ideal tool for concentrating SNP and oligonucleotides in microplates when preparing samples for microarraying and for Sequenon analysis. Compared to traditional methods, using the EZ-2 evaporator is shown to significantly speed up concentration rates, eliminate potential sources of damage to samples and also improve final sample quality...

Asynt has developed a version of DrySyn heating block purpose designed to allow scientists to perform safe, productive heating and stirring experiments with pear shaped flasks commonly used with rotary evaporators.

Pear shaped flasks are popular with organic chemists as concentrated samples can be removed much more easily than from a round bottom flask. Pear-shaped flasks are used for evaporating solutions to dryness post synthesis using a rotary evaporator, the 'rounded V' shape of the flasks enables solid materials to be scraped out more efficiently than from a round bottomed flask. Martyn Fordham, Managing Director of Asynt commented “By designing a version of the DrySyn to accept these flasks - chemists can now eliminate the need for sample transfers between reaction flask and an evaporator (pear-shaped) flask, allowing the same flask to be used for both Synthesis and Evaporation...

AMSBIO has announced the introduction of new aptamer kits for cell isolation and flow cytometry.

Aptamers are oligonucleotides or peptides that bind to a specific target molecule. Aptamers are useful in biotechnological and therapeutic applications as they offer molecular recognition properties that rival that of the commonly used biomolecule, antibodies. In addition to their discriminate recognition, aptamers offer advantages over antibodies as they can be engineered completely in a test tube, are readily produced by chemical synthesis, possess desirable storage properties, and elicit little or no immunogenicity in therapeutic applications...

Sponge swab and Stomacher technique proved to be highly effective sampling combination for assessing large surface areas

Seward Ltd., manufacturers of the world leading range of Stomacher^® paddle blenders and Stomacher^® accessories used in sample preparation for microbiological analyses, have highlighted the highly effective use of its Stomacher technology in combination with sponge swabs for hygiene monitoring and biosecurity applications. Hygiene monitoring in food and pharmaceutical production facilities and clinical environments requires simple sampling techniques with excellent microbial recovery rates across a spectrum of different species. A recent study [1] has confirmed the effectiveness of the combined sponge swab and Stomacher sampling methodology for sampling a large surface area...

Olympus launches its OlyVIA Mobile iPad App, an image viewer dedicated to virtual slides.

Allowing fast and easy-to-use remote viewing, the free-to-download app conveniently displays large brightfield as well as multidimensional fluorescence images. Researchers and educators are now able to access their entire library of virtual microscope images with just a tap of the finger on the OlyVIA Mobile iPad App. Free to download from the iTunes App Store, the app is designed for images captured with the Olympus VS120 virtual slide scanning system....

Waters Introduces UPLC System for nano- to Microscale Separations – the ACQUITY UPLC M-Class System 

New UPLC System and Columns Drive Separations Efficiency and the Sensitivity of LC-MS Analyses to New Levels. Waters Corporation (WAT:NYSE) today introduced the new Waters® ACQUITY UPLC® M-Class System, an industry-first nano- to microscale UltraPerformance LC® (UPLC®) system rated for 15,000 psi operation. Coupled to Waters mass spectrometers, the system delivers the sensitivity to quantify and to identify vanishingly small concentrations of key molecules....

Porvair Sciences has announced a new Chromatrap Enzymatic Shearing Kit that contains all the necessary reagents and buffers for up to 10 chromatin preparations.

The success of a ChIP assay is highly dependent on the quality of chromatin prepared.  The Chromatrap® enzymatic shearing kit  - allows you to determine optimal shearing conditions for your chromatin preparations and can supply you with enough chromatin to perform up to 24 ChIPs if using standard Chromatrap® ChIP spin column kit or up to 96 IP’s if using Chromatrap®  ChIP 96 High throughput microplate. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) is a technique used to study the association of specific proteins,or their modified isoforms, with defined genomic regions...

New patent for Spark Holland

Spark Holland B.V. is pleased to announce the publication of US patent no. US 8586382 B2 which relates to a method and an apparatus for desorption of a blood sample from a medical test sheet comprising at least one dried blood spot (DBS) for the purpose of biomedical analysis of the blood sample. The patent allows that the new method eliminates the need for first punching out a disc area of the test sheet containing dried blood sample, thus speeding up the procedure considerably and that on-line desorption of dried blood spots is faster and easier and allows for further automation of the process.

Bruker releases application note for analysis of sulfonamides in honey using Bruker’s Advance EVOQ Elite LC-MS/MS system

Bruker Chemical and Applied Markets (CAM), Fremont, California, US: Bruker releases application note for analysis of sulfonamides in honey using Advance EVOQ Eliteruker has released an application note detailing a simple, fast and robust method developed for the quantitation of sulfonamides in honey, using Bruker’s EVOQ Elite triple quadruple liquid chromatography mass spectrometer (LC-MS/MS). Sulfonamides are a group of broad spectrum antibacterial drugs, used to prevent and treat bacterial growth in honey products...

Tecan has introduced a Cavro^® ADP (Air Displacement Pipettor) module for the popular Cavro Omni Robot.

Available with a broad choice of lengths, orientations and options for all three axes, the Cavro Omni Robot is designed to combine precision OEM liquid handling with straightforward integration, and the launch of the Cavro ADP option provides even greater flexibility in instrument design. The CavroADP provides an alternative to the existing liquid displacement pipetting for any application using the Cavro Omni Robot. Using pneumatic technology, this compact pipetting module has been integrated and optimized for use with the Cavro Omni Robot’s Universal Z arm, offering a number of additional benefits for OEM liquid handling...