N E W O N T H E M A R K E T

Drug discovery & development

NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY VOLUME 21 NUMBER 8 AUGUST 2003 949

Integrated mass spectrometry

The 4000 Q TRAP LC/MS/MS system, fromApplied Biosystems and MDS SCIEX,combines high-sensitivity triple quadrupoletechnology with the high-performance fea-tures of an ion trap to improve workflow,enhance data quality, and be up to ten timesmore sensitive than ion trap technologiescurrently available. Intended for researchersconducting drug metabolic profiling andprotein characterization, the system canhelp with the rapid identification and meas-urement of post-translational modificationspresent at low levels from complex biologi-cal samples in a single LC/MS/MS run, aswell as enable rapid identification, confir-mation and quantification of more metabo-lites present at extremely low levels in asingle experiment.http://www.appliedbiosystems.com/

Peptide synthesisPolymer Laboratories’ StratoSpheres rangeof resins are available preloaded with Bocand Fmoc amino acids for peptide synthesisapplications in drug discovery and com-binatorial/medicinal chemistry. The rel-iability and reproducibility of the und-erlying resin ensures that the peptide will beproduced in high yield and good purity,providing convenience and reducing labo-ratory time.http://www.polymerlabs.com/

Total automationProtedyne and TekCel have combined to pro-vide a complete solution for drug discoveryresearch, integrating TekCel’s plate manage-ment system with Protedyne’s BioCube labo-ratory automation systems. The combina-tion expands the capacity of the BioCube and adds sophisticated management ofmicroplate-based libraries for high-through-put applications. The system provides a mod-ular, scaleable, fully automated storage anddistribution solution for any size library.Plates can be automatically retrieved, thawedand unsealed in a controlled environment,and delivered for processing at rates of up to240 plates per hour.http://www.protedyne.com/http://www.tekcel.com/

Microarray platformBeckman Coulter’s A2 Protein MicroArrayplatform delivers more than a thousandresults from a single microplate in less thanfive minutes. A unique design allows the iden-tification of 13 different analytes in each wellof a 96-well plate, addressing limiting factorssuch as speed, flexibility and the ability toautomate the entire assay process. The systemincludes prespotted A2 MicroArray 96-wellplates, new Universal Linker Reagent Kits andthe new A2 Reader and software, and is idealfor drug discovery applications and forresearch into diseases and their pathways.http://www.beckmancoulter.com/

High-throughput testingMultiScreen-MIC 96-well filter plates fromMillipore are designed for testing leads in drugdevelopment efforts. Optimized for migration,invasion and chemotaxis assays, they incorpo-rate a choice of 3 µm, 5 µm or 8 µm polycar-bonate membrane for use with a variety of celltypes, and support both adherent and suspen-sion cell lines. The 96-well design increasesscreening throughput fourfold over 24-welldevices without compromising cell growth orassay results. The unique design offers thesame membrane surface as a 24-well plate butsmaller well volume requires less reagent andsignificant cost savings.http://www.millipore.com/

Drug design software

Catalyst 4.8 is the latest version of Accelrys’srational drug design application for leadidentification and optimization. The softwareincludes HypoRefine, a new algorithm thatyields more accurate predictive models toimprove the quality of computer-aided drugdesign. Other enhancements include catDB,which enables seamless data import fromthird-party software and catConfirm, whichimproves handling of important chemistriessuch as cis-trans geometries in amide bondsand axial-equatorial populations in 1,4-dis-ubstituted piperazines. Catalyst 4.8 supportsLinux (server), IBM AIX* (server) and SGI(client and server) platforms.http://www.accelrys.com/

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