Millipore and Guava Technologies are offering a USD100,000 (GBP67,700) Guava flow cytometer as a prize in a competition to find a research proposal that will advance understanding of cell biology.
The competition was announced during the American Society of Cell Biology meeting in San Francisco, California by Geoffrey Crouse, vice-president of Millipore Life Science, and Lawrence Bruder, chief executive officer of Guava Technologies.
Crouse said: 'This award will enable research into such critical areas of cell biology as stem cell differentiation, cell signalling, mechanism of action of a particular therapeutic agent and insight into the molecular basis of a specific pathology.' Applications can be accessed from both the Millipore and Guava Technologies websites from January 1 until April 30 2009.
The applications will be reviewed by scientists from both companies.
After reviewing the applications, the scientific panel will select five finalists.
Each of the finalists will be contacted for an in-depth discussion of their proposal.
The instrument will be awarded in May 2009 to one of the finalists.
The award is open to all research labs worldwide.
Earlier this year, Millipore and Guava Technologies entered into a long-term partnership to deliver optimised benchtop flow cytometry products and services to the academic, government, biotechnology and pharmaceutical markets.
Since the partnership was announced, the companies have successfully introduced 17 kits for stem cell characterisation and chemokine receptor quantification and are jointly developing a next generation flow cytometry instrument.
