MDS Analytical Technologies has acquired California-based Blueshift Biotechnologies for US$13 million
The acquisition of Blueshift Biotechnologies, a developer of screening platforms for life sciences research and maker of the IsoCyte benchtop laser scanning cytometer, expands MDS Analytical Technologies's capabilities in cellular analysis, and further strengthens the company's global sales and service offering.
High content screening (HCS) and high content analysis (HCA) are growing trends in both pharmaceutical drug screening and life sciences research.
MDS Analytical Technologies's cellular imaging product line now includes imaging systems and software that provide life sciences and drug discovery researchers with a more complete solution to conduct HCS and HCA.
Cellular imaging provides intracellular information on compound effects for a large variety of cellular processes.
Blueshift Biotechnologies's IsoCyte instrument conducts rapid image analysis of large populations of cells in a microtiter plate whole-well format.
Whole-well, rapid cellular analysis enables a cost-effective solution for the adoption of HCS and HCA into high throughput screening environments.
"This acquisition fills a gap in our current product portfolio, allowing us to offer our pharmaceutical research customers fast and simple cellular analysis with a line of instrumentation that images the whole well at true high throughput screening rates", said Andy Boorn, president of MDS Analytical Technologies.
There are currently 14 IsoCyte instruments installed at academic, biotech and pharmaceutical companies in North America.
With our extensive global sales force, we have the ability to bring this novel product to a wider global market.
"We are very excited about this opportunity for Blueshift Biotechnologies to merge into a world-class company like MDS Analytical Technologies", stated Evan Cromwell, president of Blueshift Biotechnologies.
The breadth and strength of its sales and marketing efforts mean that we will be able to increase awareness of this unique high-throughput imaging tool in new markets.
