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Product News

Technology News July 2013

The latest equipment, instrument, and system introductions to the laboratory market.

by Lab Manager
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Analytical


Elemental Analyzer
multi EA® 5000

  • Features the Self Check System (SCS), a combination of hardware components and software functions which automatically prevent faulty analyses and system contamination
  • SCS checks and regulates gas flow, temperature, pressure, system tightness, detector stability, required maintenance, combustion quality etc.
  • Provides easy operation, as well as reliable readings and saves costs and working time

Analytik Jena
www.analytik-jena.com


Xenon Light Source
HPX-2000-HP-DUV

  • Suited for UV-Vis absorbance spectroscopy and other applications where a high-intensity lamp is necessary
  • Features an integrated shutter that can be controlled via a switch on the front panel or a TTL signal over the rear panel
  • Provides continuous spectral output from 185-2000 nm and has up to 2,000 hours of bulb life

Ocean Optics
www.oceanoptics.com


Product Spotlight

Three is Better than One

LC-MS System’s Unique Architecture Boosts Analytical Performance and Methods

Back in June, Thermo Fisher Scientific launched the first “Tribrid” LC-MS system at the ASMS Conference on Mass Spectrometry and Allied Topics in Minneapolis.

“Our mission has been to create the highest-performing commercial mass spectrometer ever built,” said Dr. Ian Jardine, Thermo Fisher Scientific’s chief technology officer of chromatography and mass spectrometry. “Additionally, we wanted to make this power widely accessible to the science community and make it incredibly easy to use.”

The Tribrid architecture of the new system, a configuration of three different mass analyzers, offers greater depth of analysis of complex biological samples for the life sciences sector. It also opens up completely new experimental methods.

Dr. Jardine added that, with the Orbitrap Fusion, Thermo has combined and improved its quadrupole, linear ion trap and Orbitrap technologies in a flexible research MS system.

According to one user, the system also helps deal with two main challenges— sensitivity and throughput.

“The Orbitrap Fusion instrument is revolutionary in allowing us to achieve much greater proteome-wide coverage with much greater quantitative accuracy than ever before,” said Dr. Steven Gygi, professor of cell biology at Harvard Medical School.

One way the system can address such throughput challenges is through tandem mass tags (TMT), a technique that enables mass spectrometers to determine relative quantification of proteins in multiple samples simultaneously. The instrument also dramatically increases depth and quality of data compared to previous tools to make TMT results better. The Orbitrap Fusion takes advantage of MS3 selectivity to improve quantitative accuracy, and can collect twice as many MS3 scans per unit time, at significantly greater sensitivity than was previously possible.

For more information, visit www.thermoscientific.com/asms


Basic Lab


Vented Enclosures

  • Provide effective containment of airborne particulates during manipulation and transfer of potent compounds
  • Turbulent-free design utilizes environmentally friendly, ductless technology in combination with carbon / HEPA filtration to provide precise, safe containment in all applications
  • Ductless design increases location possibilities
  • Features easy-to-change filtration system

Air Science
www.airscience.com


Biosafety Cabinet
Purifier® Logic®+

  • Allows for ergonomic operation with an angled sash for a closer, more comfortable view and an electrical outlet cover that can be opened with one finger and gently and slowly self closes
  • Features ADA-compliant touchpad controls to allow manual activation of blower, timer, audible alarm mute and menu selection
  • Offers large interior work area

LABCONCO
www.labconco.com


Stereomicroscopes
SMZ25 and SMZ18

  • The automated zoom model SMZ25 utilizes the Nikon Perfect Zoom System, which enables the world’s largest zoom ratio of 25:1, superior resolution, and exceptional fluorescence transmission capability
  • The SMZ18 is more economic and uses a manual-intelligent zoom
  • Both instruments are the first stereomicroscopes to use a fly-eye lens on an epi-fluorescence attachment

Nikon Instruments
www.nikoninstruments.com


Chemicals, Kits & Reagents


Fluorescent DNA Quantitation Kit

  • Quantifies double-stranded DNA in the low nanogram up to 5 microgram per ml range using fluorescent bisBenzimide H33258 (Hoechst) dye
  • Uses a simple method that may be easily scaled for a single cuvette or for high throughput in multi-well plates
  • Includes Fluorescent DNA Dye Solution, Fluorescent DNA Standard and Fluorescent DNA Assay Buffer, 10X in volumes sufficient to perform up to 750 reactions

AMRESCO
www.amresco-inc.com


Aptamer Protein Precipitation Kits

  • Aptamer-based protein precipitation kits provide easy, quick and consistent protein precipitation
  • Offer a range of unique characteristics and provide significant advantages over alternative methods
  • Will not contribute to protein/peptide background that can interfere with subsequent mass analysis
  • Supplied as a complete kit in which aptamer is covalently conjugated to magnetic beads

AMSBIO
www.amsbio.com


RNA Extraction Kits and Reagents
ExpressArt® RNA

  • For the extraction (isolation) of high quality RNA from FFPE tissues and LCM samples that can be used not only for PCR but also microarray applications
  • Does not require the paraffin removal step
  • Kits include patented de-cross linking technology which is uniquely able to isolate high quality RNA from old, archival FFPE samples (10 years old or more)

AMSBIO
www.amsbio.com


Life Science


Peptide Mapping Columns
AdvanceBio

  • New additions include the AdvanceBio Peptide Mapping BioHPLC and ZORBAX RRHD 300-HILIC columns
  • Designed to deliver excellent performance for the separation, characterization and analysis of a wide range of proteins, monoclonal antibodies, peptides and additional biologics
  • AdvanceBio Peptide Mapping column can rapidly determine the primary protein structure and identify modifications with high speed and sensitivity

Agilent
www.agilent.com


qPCR Assays
PrimePCR

  • Now include the mouse genome
  • Have been experimentally validated to ensure performance
  • Predesigned pathway and disease plates curated by Thomson Reuters for canonical pathways and related collections help researchers identify and investigate key targets
  • Easy-to-use plate configurator allows users to lay out assays on a plate exactly as they choose or use a suggested plate layout template

Bio-Rad
www.bio-rad.com


Product Spotlight

Image, Read, Incubate

New all-in-one system aims to tackle cell biologist’s main hurdles

BioTek recently released the first hybrid multimode microplate reader and imaging system, the Cytation™3. The combination of multi-detection and automated digital microscopy in one instrument allows cell biology researchers to obtain data-rich quantitative and qualitative information from their cells in ways they couldn’t before.

The instrument enables both target-based and phenotypic screening and is aimed at price-conscious users.

“We knew that with our expertise, we would be able to develop a system that was affordable,” said BioTek instruments product manager Xavier Amouretti, adding that customers can order the system as just a plate reader, as an imager, or both, based on their needs and budget.

One other major hurdle with similar types of instruments is learning and using the software. With the Cytation3’s Gen5™ data analysis software, BioTek hopes to address that problem, Amouretti said.

“We thought we could really work on making our software as easy to use as possible for non-experts,” he said, adding the software includes many neat features, such as one-click counting. “It’s a tool that will automatically identify cell nuclei and give you a count.”

Cytation3 also automates repetitive microscopy work and features brightfield imaging and color switching through onboard filter cubes, while the reader measures absorbance, fluorescence and luminescence detection. In addition to reading and imaging, the system offers uniform temperature control to 45°C, variable shaking modes, and CO2 and O2 regulation for live-cell assays.

Set to ship this month, early users already seem to like the system.

“It’s really great for initial counting,” said Dana Nojima, a senior scientist at Amgen. “You can turn it on and it’s ready to go.”

For more information, visit http://landing.biotek.com/cytation3-pr


Supplies & Consumables


Barbed Fittings
Thermobarb®

  • For use with plastic and rubber tubing and reinforced hose
  • Now available in in five materials—polypropylene, polyethylene, nylon, PVDF, and brass
  • Each material offers different performance properties to meet the demands of diverse applications such as appliances, medical devices, chemical transfer, laboratories, food and beverage processing, pharmaceutical uses, general industrial, vending equipment, potable water, MRO and OEM

NewAge Industries
www.newageindustries.com


Affinity Filters and Supports
POREX®

  • Range of porous materials is used to enhance functionality through surface modification or sorbent addition
  • Suited to applications such as pipette tips, 96 well plates, spin columns and gravity flow centrifuge columns
  • Help facilitate high resolution with high flow velocity
  • Available in molded discs, sheets, rolls or with embedded Carbon, C8, or C18

Porex
www.porex.com