Selected issue: 1/2008

Discussion continues to rage over whether orange, blue, red or bright green is the best color for our new HydroFlex™ 3-in-1 platform and the popular Sunrise™ microplate reader.

Tecan is launching a new 384-channel head for the Freedom EVO® liquid handling workstations, offering higher productivity to automated liquid handling processes in pharmaceutical and biotechnology research applications.

Visitors to LabAutomation will be able to see Tecan’s new generation of liquid handling technology components, the new pump and the new robot.

Tecan has launched its latest development for the constantly evolving, compact Freedom EVO® 75 robotic workstation. The 8 Plus 1 Access™ tool is a clever and cost-effective eight-channel arm for fast and flexible pipetting.

Tecan’s Freedom EVOware® Hit Picking Wizard is available as an add-on to your Freedom EVOware software for automated plate and compound management during hit picking.

Protagen AG, based in Dortmund, Germany, provides protein analysis, proteomics and bioinformatics tools and services to pharmaceutical and biotech companies. The company develops and produces special protein arrays for both antibody characterization (the UNIchip®) and biomarker discovery, and depends on two Tecan HS 4800™ Pro Hybridization Stations for automated processing of these biochips.

Immunalysis Corporation, in California, USA, provides customized semi and fully automated drugs of abuse screening solutions to forensic toxicology laboratories and works closely with Tecan, tailoring the Freedom EVO® 75 liquid handing workstation as the platform of choice for its customers.

For companies planning to produce new products designed specifically for the clinical diagnostics market, successful product development is only part of the challenge. Our expertise in quality and regulatory issues, as well as years of experience in providing instruments to diagnostics laboratories, puts Tecan in a unique position to help you take your application from the life science market to the clinical/IVD market, or to take your existing clinical diagnostics products into new geographical areas.

The Centre for Proteomic and Genomic Research (CPGR) has several Tecan instruments for automated processing of multiple batches of microarrays simultaneously, including an HS 4800™ Pro Hybridization Station with the new QuadChamber™ and a HydroFlex™ system.

The Swedish National Veterinary Institute (SVA) in Uppsala, Sweden, depends on a Tecan Freedom EVOlyzer® for automating ELISAs during routine diagnostic screening of animal diseases such as Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS).

Tecan’s Freedom EVO® Clinical 75 performs fully automated RNA and DNA extraction from up to 24 samples in 3 hours, using magnetic microparticle processing. The Laboratory LABCONOWL in Bad Salzuflen, Germany evaluated the instrument’s performance in combination with the Abbott RealTime™ HIV-1 and HCV assays, and compared it to the previously validated Abbott m2000™ processing system.

The Infinite® M1000 brings flexibility, sensitivity and speed in one high-end, multimode reader, bridging the gap between research, assay development and screening.

In Yokohama, Japan, RIKEN (The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research) has just completed a structural genomics and proteomics project to determine numerous protein structures, for which the researchers chose Tecan’s liquid handling workstations to prepare the protein samples for NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography.

Akonni Biosystems is the latest company in the USA to acquire a Freedom EVO®/REMP Small- Size Store™ Factory, relying on the platform for fully automated liquid handling and sample management during manufacturing of its revolutionary TruArray™ microfluidic card-based diagnostic arrays.

Tecan and GE Healthcare have announced a collaboration in the area of protein handling and screening. The two leading companies are working together to optimize the combination of Tecan’s automated instrumentation with GE Healthcare’s pre-packed chromatography media, specifically in the area of high throughput protein applications.

A Tecan Freedom EVO® 150 liquid handling workstation recently starred in a one-hour special episode of the longrunning, forensic science-based television show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Our systems biology symposium, held in mid-September on the shores of Lake Zürich, presented a rare opportunity for leading scientists working at the forefront of research to meet together in an informal atmosphere.