NextGen Sciences and LabVantage Solutions Sign Agreement for Proteomics Research Sample Management
Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, and Bridgewater, New Jersey, 25 July 2003: – NextGen Sciences Ltd., a company developing and manufacturing platform technologies for protein research, and LabVantage Solutions, Inc., a leading provider of Enterprise LIMS and Life Sciences LIMS solutions, announced today that they have signed a definitive Software Distribution Agreement that authorizes NextGen Sciences to resell and use LabVantage Sapphire Life Science LIMS. The agreement authorizes NextGen Sciences to fully integrate and leverage LabVantage’s Sapphire Life Sciences LIMS within NextGen Sciences’ ExpressionFactory for automated protein expression.
The Expression Factory combines a suite of novel biochemical tools with a completely integrated robotics system to express hundreds of proteins in parallel, and with complete automation capability to streamline the research process. The Expression Factory has an “expert” bioinformatics system called the Information Management System (IMS™ ) that guides the researchers through the processes by which new expression constructs are created, and are then used to express proteins in bacterial and insect hosts. IMS includes extensive data handling, sample management, genealogy tracking, and rich workflow automation to manage these processes. The agreement provides NextGen Sciences access to LabVantage’s powerful Sapphire LIMS information system, which when fully integrated with NextGen Sciences’ IMS, meets these exacting infrastructure requirements.
LabVantage Sapphire Life Sciences LIMS addresses unique proteomics needs by offering precisely traceable sample management that helps accelerate the investigation of new targets. Sapphire Life Sciences LIMS supports all documentation needs for 21 CFR Part 11 compliance.
“Last year our two organizations set out to assess how the Sapphire LIMS information system could be integrated into a complete solution for cloning and protein expression, and I am very pleased with what has been achieved,” said Dr. Kevin Auton, CEO of NextGen Sciences.
Working together, the two companies were able to combine the advanced capabilities for tracking biological materials of LabVantage’s’ Sapphire, with the knowledge-based expertise inherent in NextGen Sciences’ IMS. This innovative solution allows researchers to first plan entire processes for vector construction, gene cloning, and protein expression in silico before any bench work is undertaken. Flaws in the cloning strategy are identified early, saving a great deal of wasted effort from pursuing dead-end strategies at the laboratory bench. The genealogy tracking inherent in IMS also provides a complete audit trail that records the history for each biomaterial (vector, gene expression construct, cell line or protein), and how and from what it was assembled. The in silico workflow is then sent to the robotics system to perform each process, recording and tracking every operation in the IMS as each step is performed by the robotics. It is what NextGen Sciences calls “SMARTautomation.”
“This agreement is a culmination of many months of joint efforts to design and develop a world-class proteomics research offering for a scalable sample management technology framework,” said Jim Aurelio, President and CEO, LabVantage Solutions. “The relationship with NextGen Sciences provides LabVantage with additional market access for science-oriented companies requiring a flexible, scalable information management system for proteomics research.”
About NextGen Sciences
NextGen Sciences, Ltd. is a discovery acceleration company developing breakthrough solutions to the complex and expensive drug discovery process. NextGen’s teams of discovery scientists and engineers fast track new, patented ideas to market in the field of protein research – saving time, money, and opening up new, viable markets for its biopharmaceutical and academic customers. The company is headquarters in Cambridgeshire’s biotech belt, and was founded in May 2000. For additional information on NextGen, please visit http://www.nextgensciences.com/index.htm.
About LabVantage Solutions, Inc.
LabVantage Solutions, Inc., a Chatterjee Management Group company, is an Advanced IBM Business Partner, and the leader in Life Sciences LIMS and Enterprise LIMS solutions. LabVantage provides intelligent sample and data management traceability for high throughput screening, genomics, proteomics and traditional manufacturing QA/QC. LabVantage products excel in the areas of workflow process automation, open database modeling, and integration of multiple data sources into a single browser interface. The company also offers services that ensure customer success, such as industry and technology consulting, implementation services, application training, and extensive customer support services. Headquartered in Bridgewater, New Jersey, LabVantage also has offices in High Wycombe, UK, and Kolkata, India, as well as business partners in Singapore and Scandinavia. For additional information on LabVantage, please visit http://www.labvantage.com.
