Inside Instrumentation

• Bruker continues productivity drive
• Wyatt acquires Proterion, unveils new instruments
• PerkinElmer, Procognia proteomics agreement
• JEOL introduces new mass spec
• Companies name new executives
• Selerity offers controls for APIs
• THERMO ELECTRON EXPANDS IN CHINA

Bruker continues productivity drive

Bruker Biosciences has begun the second phase of its plan to cut costs and increase productivity. Announced in September 2004, the initiative reorganized production, R&D, sales, and administrative operations to generate $6 million in annual cost savings. About 60 jobs were eliminated worldwide. Additional steps are now expected to offer another $3 million in savings. These steps include consolidating Bruker Daltonics' German administrative and life sciences business activities to its Bremen location and the U.K. operations of Bruker AXS and Bruker Daltonics to a site in Coventry. At its headquarters in Billerica, Mass., U.S. senior management will take a voluntary temporary pay cut of 10–15% while the CEO forfeits 20%. On a more positive note, Bruker AXS will provide its D8 DISCOVER for Wafers X-ray diffraction system to the Albany NanoTech R&D center for nanoscale structural characterization of 300-mm wafers.

Wyatt acquires Proterion, unveils new instruments

Wyatt Technology has completed the acquisition of Proterion Corp., which expands Wyatt's lineup beyond classical multiangle light scattering to include dynamic light-scattering instruments. Wyatt is also launching the DAWN Heleos multiangle light-scattering detector, which is able to determine simultaneously the radius and molar mass of macromolecules.

PerkinElmer, Procognia proteomics agreement

PerkinElmer and procognia have announced a distribution and comarketing agreement to provide analytical methods for protein glycosylation (the addition of carbohydrates to proteins). The agreement combines Procognia's assay, the U-c fingerprint lectin array (lectins are sugar-binding proteins usually derived from plants), with PerkinElmer's instrumentation, the Protein Array Workstation and ProScanArray HT. The U-c fingerprint technology, which doesn't require sample purification or pretreatment, allows the quantitative analysis of 20 samples in about three hours.

JEOL introduces new mass spec

JEOL has expanded its mass spectrometry offerings to include an instrument for high-resolution gas chromatography and time-of-flight mass spectrometry, the AccuTOF-GC. The system combines high-speed data acquisition of 25 averaged spectra per second with mass resolution of 5,000, measured at full-width half maximum. The TOF detector can be combined with a variety of ion sources, including electron ionization, chemical ionization, field desorption, and desorption chemical ionization. The detector is designed to last longer and operate at lower voltages than its predecessors. Its wide linear dynamic range allows analysis at both low and high concentrations.

Companies name new executives

Millipore's President and CEO, martin D. Madaus, 45, took over his new roles on Jan. 1. Former CEO Francis J. Lunger, 58, remains as chairman until March 1. Madaus joined the company from Roche, where he served as president and CEO for Roche Diagnostics in the U.S. Meanwhile, Applied Biosystems has named Dennis A. Gilbert, 46, to the new position of chief scientific officer and vice president for research. Gilbert, who has a Ph.D. in genetics, also serves as a vice president of Applied Biosystems' parent, Applera.

Selerity offers controls for APIs

Selerity Technologies reports that its Polartherm controller and oven for temperature-programmed liquid chromatography (LC) can be used as a tool for separating active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). In an experimental demonstration, the company analyzed different sources of sildenafil citrate (the active ingredient in Pfizer's impotence drug Viagra) using high-temperature LC with a thermal gradient. Using this approach, it found that a copycat version of the drug contained less active ingredient than the 100 mg claimed, whereas a Viagra sample contained the correct amount. Selerity's system can operate at temperatures up to 200 °C in isothermal and gradient modes.

THERMO ELECTRON EXPANDS IN CHINA

Thermo Electron announced the opening of a new 90,000-sq-ft manufacturing facility in Shanghai, which increases the company's manufacturing capacity in China more than fourfold. China currently accounts for 5% of Thermo's total revenue. The facility is expected to add up to 300 new jobs when operating at capacity. Initially, the facility will produce 10 products, with an expected expansion to more than 20 products by 2006. Thermo also announced the launch of the EGIS Defender, a system combining high-speed gas chromatography and differential ion mobility spectrometry for the trace detection of explosives, and the ARL SMS-3000 automation system, designed to run simultaneously with X-ray fluorescence and optical emission spectrometers.

Inside Instrumentation is written by Celia M. Henry and Ann M. Thayer. Contact them via e-mail to instrumentation@acs.org.