News
Emerald expansion
Emerald expansion
Fisher Scientific has announced an agreement with Reagecon/Alkem of Shannon, County Clare to distribute its laboratory products in the Republic of Ireland.
Reagecon is a chemical measurement and laboratory equipment specialist and will be Fisher Scientific's sole representative for all product lines, from laboratory chemicals and apparatus to safety and specialist life-science research products.
Commenting on the arrangement, David Westwater, Managing Director of Fisher Scientific UK said, "We are delighted by this new business association. Reagecon is a perfect fit and this will enable us to provide the best service to our Irish customers."
Thermo named readers' choice
Thermo Electron Corporation has announced that its GRAMS™ desktop spectroscopy software is named the 2005 Readers' Choice Award winner for spectroscopy software in an annual survey conducted by Scientific Computing and Instrumentation, and that Thermo's SampleManager™ laboratory information management system and Atlas™ chromatography data system were finalists in the LIMS and CDS categories. Thermo is the only company with its products nominated in these three categories for 2005.
The winning nomination was for Thermo's GRAMS Suite — a desktop spectroscopy data processing and reporting software solution for visualizing, processing and managing spectroscopy data. GRAMS offers broad compatibility with many different instrument data types and a simple user interface. Life and analytical science researchers rely on GRAMS' powerful collection of processing routines to solve some of their most difficult data analysis problems. The GRAMS suite improves access to data while reducing the need for multiple software packages and associated training.
Sigma restructure
Sigma-Aldrich has recently announced a new organization consisting of four customer-centric business units, each headed by a president reporting to the Company's President and COO. The restructuring is intended to further enhance the company's ability to serve its diverse base of more than sixty thousand commercial accounts comprising one million individual customers worldwide and the potential for above market growth rates.
After an extensive six month study that included interviews with nearly 650 customers around the globe, the company is reorganizing its two existing life science and high technology research businesses — scientific research and biotechnology — into three units, each with its own distinctive competencies to meet the needs of carefully defined customer segments.
The company's final business, SAFC, which stands separate from these research units and represents 25% of the company's current sales after the recent acquisition of JRH Biosciences, offers fine chemical products and flexible service solutions for customers in the three key industrial market segments of pharma, biosciences and hi-tech. SAFC will continue to be led by Frank Wicks, 52, who has served as the unit's President since January 2003.
While these organizational changes are effective immediately, the company plans to continue to report its sales results for its three existing scientific research, biotechnology and SAFC business units through 2005 and begin reporting under the new four-unit structure in 2006.
AI and GenAI Applications to Help Optimize Purification and Yield of Antibodies From Plasma
October 31st 2024Deriving antibodies from plasma products involves several steps, typically starting from the collection of plasma and ending with the purification of the desired antibodies. These are: plasma collection; plasma pooling; fractionation; antibody purification; concentration and formulation; quality control; and packaging and storage. This process results in a purified antibody product that can be used for therapeutic purposes, diagnostic tests, or research. Each step is critical to ensure the safety, efficacy, and quality of the final product. Applications of AI/GenAI in many of these steps can significantly help in the optimization of purification and yield of the desired antibodies. Some specific use-cases are: selecting and optimizing plasma units for optimized plasma pooling; GenAI solution for enterprise search on internal knowledge portal; analysing and optimizing production batch profitability, inventory, yields; monitoring production batch key performance indicators for outlier identification; monitoring production equipment to predict maintenance events; and reducing quality control laboratory testing turnaround time.
Profiling Volatile Organic Compounds in Whisky with GC×GC–MS
November 1st 2024Researchers from Austria, Greece, and Italy conducted a study to analyze volatile organic compounds (VOCs) present in Irish and Scotch whiskys using solid-phase microextraction (SPME) Arrow with comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC×GC–MS) to examine the organoleptic characteristics that influence the taste of spirits.
GC–TOF-MS Finds 250 Volatile Compounds in E-Cigarette Liquids
November 1st 2024A study has used gas chromatography coupled to a time-of-flight mass spectrometer to build an electron ionization mass spectra database of more than 250 chemicals classified as either volatile or semi-volatile compounds. An additional, confirmatory layer of liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis was subsequently performed.
