Cambridge Enterprise portfolio company BlueGnome has declared its intentions to move into the laboratory hardware field, with the announcement of a supply agreement with California-based company SciGene. Under the terms of the agreement, which was announced at the European Cytogenetic Association conference in Porto, Portugal, SciGene will manufacture BlueGnome’s new range of ClearHyb hybridisation and wash systems.
Commenting on the agreement BlueGnome’s CEO, Nick Haan said, “Time to market is a major issue for new laboratories that wish to establish and evolve their microarray-based services. With sales to 39 countries so far this year we find that new laboratories are increasingly looking for a complete turnkey solution, including laboratory hardware, which enables their newly trained scientists to deliver the highest quality results in the shortest possible timeframe.
“We have long recommended SciGene products as the best available solution for hybridisation and washing of our microarrays and are excited to be working with them to strengthen this relationship with new ClearHyb products.” Jim Stanchfield, Ph.D., President and CEO of SciGene, added, “We are pleased with our partnership whereby SciGene technology will be used to simplify the microarray workflow used with BlueGnome’s array solutions that will enhance the reproducibility of these assays and their customers’ laboratory productivity.”
New ClearHyb instruments may be ordered immediately, with the first customer shipment expected in August 2011. For further information see: www.cytochip.com/productsclear.
Receive the Funding Newswire each Tuesday, our Policy Bulletin each Thursday, and news about bridging Europe’s east-west innovation gap twice a month in The Widening. 
A unique international forum for public research organisations and companies to connect their external engagement with strategic interests around their R&D system.
