Peaks of Interest

Eksigent enters Latin America

Eksigent (Dublin, California) announced a new distribution agreement with Nova Analitica of Brazil. The agreement covers sales and service of Eksigent's NanoLC HPLC product line. Nova Analitica specializes in chromatography and spectrometry equipment for the analytical chemistry and life science research markets. The company serves all of Brazil, and its customers include pharmaceutical companies, private research institutions, and academia.

Thermo Fisher acquires OptiCell

Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., (San Jose, California) announced it has acquired all assets of the OptiCell product line from BioCrystal, Ltd. (Westerville, Ohio). Included in the transaction were trademarks, production equipment, inventory, and 12 patents related to OptiCell technology.

Columnist Ron Majors awarded

Senior chemist for the LC Columns and Supplies Division of Agilent Technologies (Palo Alto, California) and LCGC columnist Ron E. Majors was awarded the L.S Palmer Award by the Minnesota Chromatography Forum (MCF) for his outstanding contributions to chromatography. His award was presented at the MCF's 2007 Symposium in Minneapolis. Ron, who has been at HP/Agilent since 1990, has over 150 publications in chromatography, sample preparation, and surface chemistry.

Shimadzu opens new office

Shimadzu Scientific Instruments (Columbia, Maryland) announced the opening of a new regional office in Carlsbad, California. The office will allow Shimadzu to provide more direct sales, technical support, and service for Southern California, Southern Nevada, and Hawaii.

Thar completes Berger acquisition

Thar Instruments (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) announced the acquisition of the Berger SFC division of Mettler Toledo (Columbus, Ohio). Berger SFC has been involved in the development of SFC and is a world leader in SFC analysis and purification. The combination of the top two supercritical fluid technology companies will enable the advancement of new technologies.

JASCO receives award

The Molecular Chirality Research Organization (MCRO) held its annual Molecular Chirality Symposium on May 15–16 at the Tokyo University of Science in Tokyo, Japan. On May 15, this year's honors went to Professor Hiroshi Tsukube of Osaka City University and to JASCO (Easton, Maryland).

The Symposium on Molecular Chirality was initiated by the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan to promote progress in the pharmaceutical sciences dealing with

chiral drugs.