Peaks of Interest
Varian acquires Polymer Labs, Thermo contributes to Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief Fund, and French Police select Whatman for DNA collection.
Varian acquires Polymer Labs
Varian, Inc. (Palo Alto, California) recently announced that it has acquired PL International, Ltd. (Shropshire, United Kingdom), and its subsidiaries including Polymer Laboratories, Ltd. (Amherst, Massachusetts) for approximately $42 million in cash. The transaction includes an opportunity for up to $23 million of additional payments over three years, depending upon financial performance.
Polymer Laboratories develops of consumables and instrumentation for advanced polymer analysis, including columns, standards, and specialist chromatography systems dedicated to gel permeation chromatography analysis.
Laboratory Information Management Systems
"The acquisition of Polymer Laboratories is strategic to the advancement of Varian's goal to grow the applications-based consumable products to become a larger portion of the business," said Garry W. Rogerson, president and CEO of Varian.
The acquisition is part of the company's strategy to strengthen its product portfolio with internal research and development efforts and strategic acquisitions of complementary products and technologies.
Thermo contributes to Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief Fund
Thermo Electron (Waltham, Massachusetts) recently has announced that it will match employee contributions to the Red Cross in support of the Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund. During the days following the disaster, the company's employees contributed money, food, water, medicines, and other relief to help the evacuees and those remaining in the affected areas.
French Police select Whatman for DNA collection
Whatman (Florham Park, New Jersey) recently announced that the French Police and French Gendarmerie Nationale have chosen the company's Indicating FTA Cards for the collection and transportation of buccal cell samples for forensic investigations. This agreement extends the relationship that began in 2000, when France first implemented a comprehensive database for the storage of criminal DNA.
"When our samples are collected and sent to our laboratories for processing, we need to be completely confident that the samples will maintain their integrity throughout the transportation process," said Captain Frederic Brard, head of the High Throughput Laboratory of the Gendarmerie Nationale. "After evaluating several products for DNA collection and analysis, it was clear that our original choice, Whatman FTA, is still the most reliable product available."
An LC–HRMS Method for Separation and Identification of Hemoglobin Variant Subunits
March 6th 2025Researchers from Stanford University’s School of Medicine and Stanford Health Care report the development of a liquid chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC–HRMS) method for identifying hemoglobin (Hb) variants. The method can effectively separate several pairs of normal and variant Hb subunits with mass shifts of less than 1 Da and accurately identify them in intact-protein and top-down analyses.
The Next Frontier for Mass Spectrometry: Maximizing Ion Utilization
January 20th 2025In this podcast, Daniel DeBord, CTO of MOBILion Systems, describes a new high resolution mass spectrometry approach that promises to increase speed and sensitivity in omics applications. MOBILion recently introduced the PAMAF mode of operation, which stands for parallel accumulation with mobility aligned fragmentation. It substantially increases the fraction of ions used for mass spectrometry analysis by replacing the functionality of the quadrupole with high resolution ion mobility. Listen to learn more about this exciting new development.
