A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Bio-Rad Laboratories (Hercules, California) and Caliper Life Sciences (Hopkinton, Massachusetts) reported a new collaboration, under which the companies will study the feasibility of developing a new microfluidics system platform.

Details of the new product concept are not yet being disclosed.

The two companies’ previous collaboration, initiated in mid-2003, resulted in the successful launch of a new microfluidics-based electrophoresis product, Experion, in the fall of last year.

“The success we’ve enjoyed with the Experion Automated Electrophoresis System has confirmed our belief that microfluidics is a key strategic technology,” said Nor-man Schwartz, president and CEO at Bio-Rad. “After our first positive experience collaborating with Caliper, we are looking forward to this next collaboration where we will pursue new ideas regarding LabChip microfluidics as the foundation for innovative new products.”

Bio-Rad Laboratories is a manufacturer and distributor of life science research products and clinical diagnostics. Caliper Life Sciences uses its microfluidics patent estate, automation technologies, and assay expertise to accelerate drug discovery, enable diagnosis of disease and facilitate scientific research.

In other grants/contracts news, iCAD (Nashua, New Hampshire), a provider of computer-aided detection (CAD) solutions, said that installations of its TotalLook system have been completed at mammography centers using each of the three currently available digital mammography systems – from GE Healthcare (Waukesha, Wisconsin), Siemens Medical Systems (Malvern, Pennsylvania) and Hologic (Bedford, Massachusetts).

iCAD said TotalLook is a next-generation imaging solution, a comprehensive film-to-digital offering that converts prior film mammograms into digital form for comparison with current images from a digital mammography system.