A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Corgenix Medical (Denver) said its AspirinWorks test is now available to physicians and other laboratories through Quest Diagnostics (Lyndhurst, New Jersey).

“This arrangement with Quest Diagnostics is great news for the increasing number of physicians and labs wanting to offer the AspirinWorks test,” said Douglass Simpson, president/CEO of Corgenix. “Some of the nation’s most prominent labs are now routinely running this important test, which determines if aspirin is eliciting an effect.”

AspirinWorks is a urine test that determines the effect of aspirin on platelets by measuring the level of thromboxane production (aspirin’s target). The higher the levels of thromboxane, the stickier the blood platelets, and the less impact the aspirin is having. This crucial information allows physicians to individualize a patient’s therapy.

Corgenix says that unlike other tests, which require freshly drawn blood that must be evaluated within at least four hours, the AspirinWorks test requires only a urine sample that can be obtained in any doctor’s office, making the test easy for both physician and patient.

The AspirinWorks test, launched in 2007 following FDA clearance, is now available nationwide through what Corgenix termed “a growing list of national and regional clinical laboratories.”

Simpson said additional supporting clinical data and scientific articles scheduled for publication this year will further enhance the science and clinical validation behind aspirin effect testing.

In other agreements:

• WaferGen Biosystems (Fremont, California), a developer of gene expression, genotyping, cell biology and stem cell research systems, reported the signing of exclusive distribution agreements for the company’s SmartSlide Micro-Incubation System with Inbio (Wiltshire, UK), ScienceWerke (Singapore) and Westburg (Leusden, the Netherlands).

Each of the distributor agreements, which cover WaferGen’s entire family of SmartSlide Micro-Incubation System products, is renewable contingent on the achievement of target milestones. INBIO, ScienceWerke and Westburg are each leading distributors of innovative products and services to cell biologists and stem cell researchers in the life science markets within their geographic areas of focus.

WaferGen said its SmartSlide Micro-Incubation System is a first-of-its-kind family of integrated fluidics exchange micro-incubation products that work seamlessly with inverted microscopes. This breakthrough technology is enabling cell biology and stem cell researchers to conduct complex time lapse imaging studies to characterize, differentiate and proliferate cells, as well as grow stem, primary and other difficult to cultivate cells in consistently optimal physiological conditions.

“WaferGen’s signing of these key distributor agreements represents an important step in the company’s strategic efforts to expand customer adoptions of the SmartSlide Micro-Incubation System into new large target markets,” said Alnoor Shivji, WaferGen’s CEO and chairman.”

WaferGen has developed and is currently marketing the SmartSlide Micro-Incubation System, a first-of-its-kind family of integrated fluidics exchange micro-incubation products that work seamlessly with inverted microscopes.

The company said the technology is enabling cell biology and stem cell researchers to conduct complex time lapse imaging studies to characterize, differentiate and proliferate cells, as well as grow stem, primary and other difficult to cultivate cells in consistently optimal physiological conditions. As a result, this innovative system is allowing researchers to conduct their work smarter, faster and less expensively than with current equipment.

The core element of the SmartSlide Micro-Incubation System is the compact, sterile and disposable SmartSlide-6 Micro-Incubator which is designed to maintain cells at specific physiological conditions for prolonged cell or tissue imaging.

The SmartSlide-6 Micro-Incubator allows for programmable fluidics exchanging, enabling the delivery of up to six nutrient media and gas into each of its six individual wells in both intermittent and continuous perfusion modes.

• Vestibular Technologies (Cheyenne, Wyoming) said it has been awarded a contract in the physical therapy products portfolio with Premier Purchasing Partners.

Vestibular is an FDA-registered manufacturer of balance disorder/falls-risk identification, assessment, diagnostic and treatment products.