Collaboration to Create New Flow Cytometry Technology for Expanding Cell Biology Market

A long-term partnership has been created to provide integrated flow cytometry systems to scientists conducting research in cell biology, including stem cell research.

The companies, Millipore Corp. (Billerica, MA, USA) and Guava Technologies, Inc. (Hayward, CA, USA), will offer scientists improved technical performance, higher quality data, and much greater accessibility to this powerful analytic platform than is currently available.

Flow cytometry is a technique used by scientists to measure changes in protein expression in individual cells that may occur as a consequence of many important factors such as (stem) cell differentiation, disease, aging, cancer development, drug treatment, and toxicity. The combination of Millipore's and Guava's capabilities will integrate instrumentation, reagent kits, validated protocols, and technical support to bring the advantages of flow cytometry to the bench tops of cell biologists.

"Our partnership with Guava creates the potential for us to fundamentally improve the way that cell biology research is conducted,” said Martin Madaus, president and CEO of Millipore. "The combination of Millipore sample prep and reagents with Guava's instrument platform will create an integrated offering, giving scientists a menu of plug and play solutions to help them generate high quality results that advance their research. The collaboration allows us to add considerable value to the highly differentiated antibody portfolio and assay development capabilities that came with our Serologicals acquisition.”

Under the terms of the partnership, Millipore will gain exclusive rights to distribute Guava's nonclinical instrumentation within defined fields in North America, Europe, and other countries in Asia. Furthermore, Millipore will provide field service for all Guava instrumentation in the same geographies. Millipore will also develop co-branded reagent kits specifically for Guava's flow cytometers. Finally, Millipore and Guava Technologies will work together to develop a new generation of instrumentation with enhanced performance and functionality.

"Our two companies have a shared vision of making complex cellular analyses accessible to any scientist. Millipore has significant experience and reach among academic and government researchers and an extensive network of highly qualified service providers throughout the world,” said Lawrence Bruder, president and chief executive officer, Guava Technologies. "With Millipore as our partner, together we can make this vision a reality and significantly increase our global presence and lower the barriers for cell biologists to adopt flow cytometry as a major research tool.”

Guava Technologies developed the first commercially available microcapillary flow-cytometry system. Microcapillary flow cytometers accommodate smaller sample volumes, generate less waste, have lower operating costs, and are easier to set up and run than conventional flow cytometry instrumentation. The collaboration with Millipore will now accelerate delivery of this technology directly into the hands of individual life scientists worldwide. The parties plan to launch co-branded products to the market in July 2008.

Millipore is a life-science company that provides cutting-edge technologies, tools, and services for bioscience research and biopharmaceutical manufacturing. As a strategic partner, the company collaborates with customers to confront the world's challenging human health issues.

Guava Technologies is a biotechnology and medical device company that develops provider of on-demand, easy-to-use single cell analysis systems. Guava Personal Cell Analysis (PCA) systems, including the Guava PCA, Guava PCA-96, Guava EasyCyte Plus, and Guava EasyCyte Mini systems, are integrated, fully optimized, microcapillary cytometry systems with embedded absolute cell counting capability.


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