A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Royal Philips Electronics (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) and BG Medicine (Waltham, Massachusetts) have established an alliance in the field of systems biology.

BG will collaborate with Philips to develop the next generation of molecular healthcare products for application in areas such as molecular imaging and point-of-care diagnostics.

Key to the alliance is BGM's systems profiling technologies that identify biomarker sets associated with disease stage, progression and treatment. BG Medicine has granted Philips preferential access to certain of its technologies and services, and Philips has acquired a minority stake in BG.

"We are at the dawn of a new era in medicine where technology and biology are applied in conjunction to create a whole new generation of approaches to diagnosis and treatment with improved clinical outcomes," said Rick Harwig, chief technology officer of Philips.

The companies said they believe that the advancement of molecular medicine through systems biology promises to revolutionize the practice of healthcare by allowing earlier detection of disease and drug response, thereby increasing the effectiveness of treatment and minimizing the severity or duration of illness. Molecular medicine also is a keystone in developing individualized therapeutic treatments and diagnostics.

In other agreements:

• Microtest (Agawam, Massachusetts) has been selected to operate Symmetry Medical's (Warsaw, Indiana) new PolyVac sterilization validation laboratory in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Microtest will operate the facility and provide independent third-party sterilization validation testing services for Symmetry's customers. Microtest is an ISO9001:2000-certified, FDA-registered provider of microbiology and in vitro toxicology laboratory services for the medical device industry.

Symmetry became the first surgical instruments case manufacturer in the U.S. to offer complete services from manufacturing through validation.

"Many industry experts expect imminent action by the FDA guiding how, or even requiring, medical device manufacturers validate their sterilization recommendations," said Microtest President Steven Richter. He added that Symmetry's ability "to consolidate the added step – perhaps soon to be requirement – of third-party validation into the case design and manufacturing process provides a significant time-to-market advantage to medical device manufacturers."

• Stratagene (La Jolla, California), a marketer of life science research and diagnostics products, reported entering a joint development and license agreement with Rosetta Inpharmatics (Kirkland, Washington), a subsidiary of Merck & Co. (Whitehouse Station, New Jersey), to create an automated solution for the isolation of nucleic acids from a variety of clinical samples.

Nucleic acid purification allows researchers to separate RNA contained in biological samples, using the purified RNA to perform gene expression analysis and other functions within molecular diagnostics. Stratagene and Rosetta said they will develop an instrument and a single-use consumable that will be made and sold to Stratagene's current customers engaged in pharmacogenomics. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Joseph Sorge, MD, president/CEO of Stratagene, said, "We believe we have a unique opportunity to create and introduce a differentiated product that will automate the RNA purification process and provide consistent, reproducible results."

Stratagene's life science unit manufactures products used by the academic, industrial and government research sectors for molecular biology, genomics, proteomics, drug discovery and toxicology.

• Acacia Research (Newport Beach, California) reported that its CombiMatrix group (Mukilteo, Washington) has begun work on a two-year, $1.9 million contract with the Army Research Office. Funding will focus on the integration of CombiMatrix's microarray and lab-on-a-chip technology for military and homeland security uses.

Dr. Robin Liu, the principal investigator of this contract, said, "[W]e will expand the capabilities of our microfluidic lab-on-a-chip technology which we have integrated with our microarray platform and electrochemical detection. Our goal is to complete development of a self-contained, miniature device that will perform rapid multiplexed nucleic acid amplification and microarray detection in an automated instrument."

CombiMatrix's programs with the U.S. government are focused on instrument development along with assays that take advantage of its microarray for multiplexed identification of biothreat agents and other infectious agents.

• LipoScience (Raleigh, North Carolina) said it has entered into an agreement for ARUP Laboratories (Salt Lake City) to offer its NMR LipoProfile test.

ARUP serves as the primary reference laboratory for more than half of the nation's university teaching hospitals and children's hospitals. ARUP's other clients include multi-hospital groups, commercial laboratories, group purchasing organizations, military and government facilities and major clinics.

The NMR LipoProfile test "identifies patients at risk for heart disease that would normally be missed by traditional cholesterol tests alone and gives clinicians lipoprotein particle information to manage that risk appropriately," said Ronald Weiss, MD, president and chief operating officer of ARUP.

LipoScience develops clinical applications of NMR spectroscopy for cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders.

• Amicas (Boston), a developer of radiology and medical image and information management solutions, said it has been selected by healthcare purchasing organization Amerinet (St. Louis) as a provider of radiology imaging, information, billing and document management solutions in a three-year agreement.

The pact gives Amerinet's members access to Amicas products, including RIS, PACS and radiology financials software, plus implementation services and support.

• Roche Diagnostics (Indianapolis) and ATCC (Manassas, Virginia) said they are combining resources by consolidating information on transfection and cell lines used in life sciences research.

The companies said they will work toward two objectives: ATCC will supply Roche Diagnostics a selection of genuine cell lines for testing by that company using Roche Applied Science's transfection reagents; and the companies will offer links on their respective websites to aid in determining if a cell line has been successfully transfected with the FuGENE reagents.

Roche Applied Science will indicate via its web site when ATCC cell lines are transfected using FuGENE 6 and FuGENE HD Transfection Reagents by Roche Diagnostics scientists or through peer-reviewed publications. On its web site, ATCC will provide information on those cell lines and links to Roche Diagnostics transfection information and references.

• Luminex (Austin, Texas), reported receiving a sub-contract from Smiths Detection (Edgewood, Maryland), for research related to detecting acts of bio-terrorism.

The award comes from the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA) as part of their Low-Cost Biological Agent Detection System (LBADS) program.

Smiths Detection is a global provider of chemical, biological and explosives detectors and X-ray security screening equipment.

In this program, Luminex will work as a sub-contractor to Smiths Detection to develop a low-cost early warning "trigger" sensor to detect the presence of weaponized biological pathogens in the ambient air.

"The LBADS ‘trigger' sensor is designed to serve as the front end to a comprehensive bio-detection system, in which the trigger provides early warning of a possible attack, followed by a confirmatory sensor subsequently determining actual species identification," said Patrick Balthrop, president and CEO of Luminex.

Smiths Detection is one of four operating divisions of Smiths Group.

Luminex develops biological testing technologies.