A Medical Device Daily

Precision System Science (PSS; Matsudo City, Japan) and NanoString Technologies (Seattle) will partner in the co-development and manufacture of an automated fluidics-handling instrument to be distributed by NanoString as a component of their nCounter system for gene expression. The instrument incorporates Magtration technology from PSS and NanoString's nCounter technology.

Magtration technology involves the use of magnetic particles to extract and purify targeted substances. Instruments based on Magtration have become standard in research and clinical diagnostic laboratories worldwide, Precision System said. Magtration technology will be used in NanoString's automated fluidics instrument, designed to replace manual sample handling and providing robust sample processing, the company said.

According to NanoString, the nCounter system provides researchers the only method for highly multiplexed direct quantification of individual mRNAs in a biological sample. The technology is based on employing large numbers of unique single-molecule reporters, which bind directly to target molecules of interest in a one-to-one ratio. The target molecules can then be individually counted without any enzymatic conversion or amplification.

PSS provides sample preparation systems for molecular researchers and diagnosticians.

NanoString is a life science tool company developing a next generation technology for ultra-sensitive, multiplexed quantification of individual target molecules in biological samples.

In other agreements:

• Yulex (Carlsbad, California) reported signing an exclusive, royalty-based agreement with TechDevice (Watertown, Massachusetts), a manufacturer of balloon catheters and guidewires for a variety of endoscopy, urology and vascular applications. The agreement allows TechDevice to make balloon-catheter-based products using Yulex latex made from guayule latex.

Yulex says its latex is the world's only bio-based, commercial source of latex safe for people with Type I latex allergy.

TechDevice will use Yulex latex to make balloon catheters used for stone retrieval, vessel occlusion and thermodilution indications.

Yulex latex shares the same molecular composition as natural rubber latex, but without the proteins that cause latex allergy. It is derived from a U.S. desert plant called guayule. The plant also provides products for adhesives and biofuels.

Last year Yulex signed an R&D agreement with the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service to increase the rubber latex yield of guayule (Medical Device Daily, Nov. 2, 2006).

• IntelliDot (San Diego) and Pandora Data Systems (Santa Cruz, California) reported a joint marketing agreement to deliver a "closed loop" solution to facilities to ensure that medications withdrawn from a hospital's storage facility are administered to the patient.

Pandora said it will produce a report for hospitals that matches medication withdrawal information from the hospital's storage cabinet to IntelliDOT's transaction data, which identifies where and when the medication was administered, thus ensuring that it was completed accurately.

IntelliDOT develops and installs point-of-care bar code patient safety and documentation systems in hospitals. Pandora is a provider of hospital data analysis and trending tools.