New Developments at Olympus Diagnostica

Olympus Diagnostica GmbH (Hamburg, Germany) has announced that the company has changed its name to Olympus Life & Material Science Europa GmbH, amalgamating the fields of diagnostics and microscopy.

In another new development, Olympus Life and Material Science Europa GmbH has acquired the privately held microfluidics company Advalytix AG (Brunnthal, Germany). Olympus states that the extremely broad application spectrum and innovative technologies of Advalytix will provide it with additional potential to nurture expansion and maximize business growth.

Microfluidics is a key technology for diagnostics and molecular biology research used to manipulate liquids in submicroliter range. The miniaturization of liquid volumes meets an ever-growing demand to conserve both scarce samples and expensive reagents. Advalytix, which developed the SlideBooster hybridization and AdvaWash washing stations, is also developing products and protocols for the genetic analysis of single cells.

"The acquisition of Advalytix represents great short-, mid-, and long-term opportunities for Olympus Life and Material Science,” noted Dr. Helmut Koehler, executive managing director of Olympus Life and Material Science. "It positions Olympus at the very forefront of the latest technological developments in life science and allows us to sustain our above-average growth as well as profiting from the future developments in this rapidly expanding specialist area.”

In another move, to increase floor space and handle future expansion, the research and development center of Olympus for immunoassays has been moved to Rungis, a technology area south of Paris (France). The center will be housed in the same building as the head office of the diagnostics division of Olympus France. Work in the laboratory will focus on the development of heterogeneous immunoassays for the new Olympus AU3000i immuno-analyzer to be released in November 2006.




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