PerkinElmer announced the inauguration of a new centre of excellence (COE) in Singapore, as part of what the company calls its expanding commitment to helping advance drug discovery and life sciences research in Asia. The announcement was made at a special event at the world-renowned A*STAR Biopolis research complex.

The COE is the second Singapore-based facility of its kind opened by the company in the past year. The centre will serve as a training and knowledge-sharing facility for life sciences researchers located throughout the Pacific Rim. Operated by the company’s Bio-discovery business unit, the facility will aim to provide advanced solutions in the areas of automation and detection, cellular imaging and analysis, and drug discovery as well as research reagents.

"PerkinElmer's decision to open an additional COE in Singapore within a year underscores the Company's commitment to both environmental and human health and becoming an even more significant partner in Singapore's growing life sciences community," said Daniel Marshak, PhD, chief scientific officer and president of Greater China, PerkinElmer. "The new centre is also a testament to the compelling advantages of local and regional expertise. As we continue to expand into cellular sciences, we greatly anticipate working closely with both our regional and global customers through the new centre."

The newest Singapore COE is well equipped with the company's instruments, software and reagents for biotech, pharmaceutical and academic customers that enable scientific workshops, demonstrations and customer support and training. It also provides classroom courses with topics covering techniques for assay development and training of instrumentation and related analysis software.

The first Singapore based COE was opened in March 2008 and supports a wide range of detection instrumentation and applications for environmental, food, materials and oil industries, as well as for expanding the company's EcoAnalytix initiative addressing the global imperatives of food and consumer product safety, water quality and sustainable energy development.

More information about the company is available on-line at www.perkinelmer.com