A Medical Device Daily

ESA Biosciences (Chelmsford, Massachusetts), a subsidiary of Magellan Biosciences, reported receiving a "Roadmap Initiative" grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH; Bethesda, Maryland) to support its work in metabolomics research.

ESA will extend and integrate electrochemical (EC) and mass spectrometric (MS) technologies in various meta-bolomics studies. In addition to ESA, 12 other academic research institutions were awarded metabolomics technology development grants by the NIH.

Metabolomics, the study of an organism's low-molecular weight molecules, or metabolites, helps to delineate metabolic differences, for example, between normal and diseased states. The researchers thus hope to provide earlier and more precise diagnosis and prevention, and safer and more effective treatment of various diseases.

Walter DiGiusto, ESA president, said the grant supports his company's work and also "recognizes the critical importance of metabolomics itself, alongside genomics and proteomics, in understanding the complex cellular processes of the human organism."

One of more than 100 original applicants for funding under the NIH metabolomics program, ESA proposed that integrating EC and MS technologies will extend the scope, qualitative and quantitative capabilities of liquid chromatographic (LC) analysis in the study of cellular metabolites.

ESA will work with a number of collaborators in its research, including Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Applied Biosystems/MDS SCIEX, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Cornell University Medical School, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, Boston University Medical School, and Burke Medical Research Institute.

A key goal of the Roadmap Initiative program is to encourage collaboration among a wide variety of research facilities and institutions to speed scientific discoveries "from the bench to the bedside."

ESA manufactures analytical instruments for the life science, clinical diagnostic, drug discovery and pharmaceutical industries.

In other grants/contracts news:

• Microtek Medical Holdings (Alpharetta, Georgia) said it has entered into a manufacturing services agreement with Intuitive Surgical (Mountain View, California). Microtek will supply Intuitive Surgical with several of its infection control products, including sterile disposable draping products and accessories, which will be used in conjunction with Intuitive's robotic surgical equipment.

Microtek Medical and Intuitive Surgical began their collaborative efforts in 1999. Over the last five years, the relationship has "steadily grown," Microtek said, and, in anticipation of further expansion, was recently formalized into the manufacturing services agreement.

Microtek manufactures infection control products, fluid control products and safety products for use in environments such as operating rooms and outpatient surgical centers.

• HemoSense (San Jose, California) reported new distribution agreements with FDI Medical (Natick, Massachusetts), STAT Technologies (Golden Valley, Minnesota), and Whitmire Medical (Sumner, Washington) to sell HemoSense's INRatio product line to U.S. healthcare providers.

The portable INRatio Prothrombin Time (PT) Monitoring System provides PT/INR (International Normalized Ratio) test results for anticoagulation therapy patients who are taking the blood thinner Coumadin.

Anticoagu-lation patients typically have venous blood drawn and sent to a lab, delaying analysis. The INRatio System provides results in less than two minutes using one drop of fresh whole blood from a finger stick, HemoSense said.

Tim Still, executive vice president of sales and marketing at HemoSense, said, "The INRatio offers clear cost and time advantages over alternative INR testing methods, and these new partners will help bring those benefits to more healthcare professionals who manage patients on anticoagulation therapy."

HemoSense develops point-of-care blood coagulation monitoring systems.