Briefs

BOSTON -- May 28, 2002 -- PerkinElmer Life Sciences, a leading provider of drug discovery, life science research and clinical screening technologies and services, today disclosed details of the new ProteinArray Workstation(tm), the first workstation to completely automate the processing of microscope slide-based protein microarrays. The ProteinArray Workstation was developed as part of a collaborative development agreement with NextGen Sciences Ltd., (Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom), a fast track platform technology development company specializing in the genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics fields, using NextGen Sciences derived intellectual property.

The ProteinArray Workstation employs a unique microfluidics system, full software control interface and bar code tracking capability for future integration into PerkinElmer�s other protein microarray technologies (Spot Array(tm) Printers, ScanArray(tm) Slide Scanners and the HydroGel(tm) 3-dimensional protein microarray substrate). Key to its operation is the ability of the ProteinArray Workstation to aut omate almost any protein microarray assay. A ProteinArray Workstation composed of one ProteinArray Processor can process up to 12 protein microarrays with assay times of 1-2 hours, depending on the type of assay used. The system can be further expanded to process up to 48 protein microarrays using a maximum of four ProteinArray Processors per workstation. The system has been developed to use very low sample volumes (75 ml), which is particularly important where sample amounts are small.

For more, see www.perkinelmer.com/lifesciences