Caliper Life Sciences Introduces Staccato Protein Workstation for Automated Protein Sample Preparation & Analysis
June 30, 2009 by biotechbillboard.com · Leave a Comment
Caliper Life Sciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: CALP), a leading provider of tools and services for drug discovery and life sciences research, today launched the Staccato Protein Workstation to specifically address bottlenecks in the characterization of biological therapeutics and biogenerics.
With a goal of assuring the quality of therapeutic proteins and monoclonal antibodies, as well as creating mechanisms for approval of follow-on protein products (biosimilars), the FDA has encouraged the industry to submit biological new drug applications that include quality by design (QbD) parameters. QbD approaches require multivariate experimentation techniques that generate large numbers of samples and create bottlenecks in sample preparation and analysis.
“The Staccato Protein Workstation is designed to address the sample preparation and analysis bottlenecks caused by increased sample requirements of QbD approaches, and is also directly applicable to research groups performing protein expression optimization, clone selection, and other high throughput techniques,” said Kevin Keras, Business Unit Manager, ACES, Caliper Life Sciences. “Caliper has worked with several of our LabChip GXII customers, including Dow and Amgen, to develop custom automation solutions to integrate sample preparation and analysis steps. Recognizing the broader need for this workflow automation, Caliper has created the Staccato Protein Workstation as an off-the-shelf solution.”
The Staccato Protein Workstation, developed by Caliper’s Automation, Consulting, Engineering, and Services (ACES) group, incorporates the Sciclone ALH 3000 for automated liquid handling, Twister II for microplate handling, LabChip GXII for microfluidic protein characterization, and various accessories for complete workflow automation. The LabChip GXII is Caliper’s high throughput system for analyzing protein size, concentration, and purity and serves as a replacement for traditional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE). Since its launch in July, 2008, the LabChip GXII platform has been widely adopted by high throughput protein analysis laboratories including companies such as Eli Lilly, GSK Biologics, Merck and Novartis; government and academic institutions such as Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Karlshrue Institute of Technology, National Cancer Institute, Sandia National Laboratories, and University of Queensland; and biotechnology companies such as Amgen, ICx Biosystems, and XcellereX.
For additional information on Caliper’s research tools for sample preparation and quality control of biologicals, please visit http://www.caliperls.com/products/aces/staccato-protein-workstations.htm
About Caliper Life Sciences
Caliper Life Sciences is a premier provider of cutting-edge technologies enabling researchers in the life sciences industry to create life-saving and enhancing medicines and diagnostic tests more quickly and efficiently. Caliper is aggressively innovating new technology to bridge the gap between in vitro assays and in vivo results and then translating those results into cures for human disease. Caliper’s portfolio of offerings includes state-of-the-art microfluidics, lab automation & liquid handling, optical imaging technologies, and discovery & development outsourcing solutions. For more information please visit www.caliperLS.com.
Caliper, Sciclone, Staccato, Twister, and LabChip are registered trademarks, and ACES is a trademark, of Caliper Life Sciences, Inc.
BioMed Realty Trust Completes $350 Million Financing for Center for Life Science | Boston
June 30, 2009 by biotechbillboard.com · Leave a Comment
BioMed Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: BMR) announced today the closing of a new $350 million loan with John Hancock Life Insurance Company, TIAA-CREF, and Westdeutsche ImmobilienBank AG. The five year loan is secured by a single property – the Center for Life Science | Boston, a newly constructed 700,000+ square foot state-of-the-art research facility that recently received Gold LEED(R) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
“One of the hallmarks of BioMed’s strategy has been proactive management of its capital structure, and the timely completion of the financing for the Center for Life Science | Boston is a prime example of our team’s ability to execute on this strategy,” said Kent Griffin, President and Chief Financial Officer of BioMed. “In combination with our recent secondary common stock offering, which raised gross proceeds of $174.3 million, we have positioned BioMed well for continued long-term success in the execution of our business plan of acquiring, developing, owning and operating world-class research facilities in the core life science markets. We want to thank our lenders for their recognition of the world-class nature of the facility, the strength of its tenancy and especially their commitment to successfully completing this loan in a still challenging global credit environment.”
The Center for Life Science | Boston, located in the heart of Boston’s Longwood Medical Area, is surrounded by exceptional life science research institutions, hospitals and biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, including Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Merck Research Laboratories Boston. Additionally, the Center for Life Science| Boston possesses a premier tenant roster, including Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Children’s Hospital Boston, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Immune Disease Institute and Kowa Company, Ltd.
The $350 million loan bears interest at 7.75% per annum and matures in June 2014. Proceeds from the loan were used to repay a portion of an existing $507.1 million secured construction loan on the property. BioMed paid down the remaining balance of the existing secured construction loan by drawing on the company’s unsecured line of credit. The new mortgage financing for the Center for Life Science | Boston successfully addresses the last of BioMed’s debt maturities in 2009.
About BioMed Realty Trust
BioMed Realty Trust, Inc. is a real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on Providing Real Estate to the Life Science Industry(R). The company’s tenants primarily include biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, scientific research institutions, government agencies and other entities involved in the life science industry. BioMed Realty Trust owns or has interests in 69 properties, representing 112 buildings with approximately 10.5 million rentable square feet, including approximately 640,000 square feet of development in progress. The company also owns undeveloped land parcels adjacent to existing properties that it estimates can support up to 1.4 million rentable square feet. The company’s properties are located predominantly in the major U.S. life science markets of Boston, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York/New Jersey, which have well-established reputations as centers for scientific research.
About LEED(R)
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED(R)) Green Building Rating System(TM) encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through the creation and implementation of universally understood and accepted tools and performance criteria. LEED(R) is a third-party certification program and the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. LEED(R) gives building owners and operators the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable impact on their buildings’ performance.
TIAA-CREF Individual & Institutional Services, LLC, and Teachers Personal Investors Services, Inc., members FINRA, distribute securities products.
