Peaks of Interest

ESA's Corona charged aerosol detector wins 2005 R&D 100 Award

ESA Biosciences (Chelmsford, Massachusetts) recently announced that R&D Magazine selected the Corona charged aerosol detector for its prestigious 2005 R&D 100 Award.

According to Tim Studt, editor-in-chief of R&D Magazine, the winning of an R&D 100 Award "provides a mark of excellence known to industry, government, and academia as proof that the product is one of the most innovative ideas of the year."

Walter DiGiusto, president of ESA, said, "We are thrilled to become a member of this elite group of R&D 100 award winners."

Ion Chromatography

Chiral Technologies announces licensing agreement for columns

Chiral Technologies, Inc. (West Chester, Pennsylvania) recently announced that it has entered into an exclusive licensing agreement for chiral chromatography columns invented in the laboratory of Wolfgang Lindner of the University of Vienna.

The trade names for these columns will be CHIRALPAK QD-AX and CHIRALPAK QN-AX. The chiral selectors for these columns are based on complementary quinine and quinidine derivatives.

The work of Lindner and his senior researchers led to chemical bonding of the chiral selectors to silica gel. They demonstrated that separations could be carried out with all common high performance liquid chromatography solvents.

Selerity and the Research Institute for Chromatography join forces

Selerity Technologies, Inc. (Salt Lake City, Utah) recently announced an affiliation with the Research Institute for Chromatography (RIC, Kortrijk, Belgium). The affiliation will consist of a manufacturing and marketing venture for the Polaratherm total temperature controller.

Under the terms of the agreement, the manufacturing of the Polaratherm will be relocated to Belgium. RIC will take responsibility for sales and marketing in Europe and Asia. Selerity will retain the North American and other sales territories.

The venture will focus on increased production, efficient manufacturing, and an extended global presence.

Waters and PerkinElmer announce newborn-screening collaboration

Waters Corporation (Milford, Massachusetts) and PerkinElmer, Inc. (Wellesley, Massachusetts) recently announced their collaboration to deliver and support advanced newborn-screening solutions. The packaged solutions combine Waters' mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography instruments with PerkinElmer's proprietary chemistries, methodologies, and management software.

Under the terms of the agreement, PerkinElmer will be the exclusive distributor of Waters instruments for neonatal-screening applications. PerkinElmer will market the cobranded products to clinical laboratories and supply the consumables.

Newborn screening for metabolic disorders has become a widely accepted procedure in preventative pediatrics.

Agilent Technologies helps Tour de France with drug-testing challenges

Agilent Technologies, Inc. (Palo Alto, California) and Laboratoire National de Dépistage du Dopage (LNDD, Paris, France) were prepared to meet the drug-testing challenges of the 2005 Tour de France that took place last month.

The LNDD, an important European testing laboratory, was ready to provide a 24-h turnaround on approximately 180 samples during the course of the 2005 edition of the Tour.

Agilent provides most of the testing equipment utilized at the LNDD. Gas chromatography, liquid chromatography, and mass spectrometry are the fundamental techniques used in the drug-testing industry to detect and identify banned substances in competitors.