Europe bids for world’s best scientistsResearch organisations from 15 European countries are collaborating to entice the world’s best young research scientists to work in Europe in a bid to strengthen further the European science base. The European Young Investigators awards (EURYI) will allow 25 outstanding researchers from anywhere in the world to develop their research at participating European institutions. The awards are valued at up €250,000 per year each and will last for five years. The scheme is the brainchild of The European Heads of Research Councils together with the European Science Foundation. The awards cover a broad range of research subjects and each participating nation will shortlist the best applicants at national level, who will then be considered in a pan-European competition, with 25 awards starting in October 2004. The awards are open to researchers from anywhere in the world who have between two and up to ten years of postdoctoral experience at the closing date of the call, taking into account career breaks. www.esf.org/euyi. Nanoparticles simplify MALDI-ToFThe Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB in Stuttgart, Germany, is developing a new type of protein chip based on protein-binding silica-nanoparticles. The surface of this minute particle with a diameter of less than 0.1 nm can be configured with many different capture proteins. The particles configured in this way are then applied to silicon carriers in thin, even layers. After contact is made with a sample, the chips are analysed by MALDI-ToF mass spectrometry. Previously, samples for mass spectrometric analysis had to be prepared for the actual measurement in a multi-stage process. “Our nanoparticles enable us for the first time to directly enrich and measure the proteins”, says Dr Günter Tovar, head of the Biomimetic Interfaces research group at the Fraunhofer IGB. At the same time, the nanoparticles increase the sensitivity of the analysis. The project includes working groups from the universities of Gießen, Göttingen, Tübingen and Stuttgart (Institute for Interfacial Engineering IGVT) as well as the Fraunhofer IGB, along with the companies BioCore and Thermo Electron, and is supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research BMBF. achim.weber@igb.fraunhofer.de or guenter.tovar@igb.fraunhofer.de, www.igb.fraunhofer.de. |
Agilent Technologies and the
Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation have announced a
worldwide licensing agreement that allows Agilent to commercialise exclusively
a chemical reagent used for the derivatisation and mass tagging of protein
samples prior to analysis by mass spectrometry. web.gnf.org, www.agilent.com.
A FiberLight miniature UV light source, from Heraeus Noblelight, has been used by the Monterey Bay Research Institute in the mapping of concentrations of nitrate, nitride, busulphide and bromide in large areas of the southern Pacific Ocean. The concentrations were measured by means of a spectral photometer positioned in the sea for some months at depths of up to 4000 m. www.heraeus-noblelight.com. Oxford Instruments Superconductivity has been selected as a key supplier of superconducting magnets to Thermo Electron for the LTQ hybrid ion trap FT mass spectrometer. www.oxford-instruments.com, www.thermo.com. GV Instruments, which started operations in March 2003, after acquiring the inorganic mass spectrometry business from Micromass, has also acquired Analytical Precision Products Ltd, a supplier of stable isotope mass spectrometers, and HtX Ltd, developer of noble gas mass spectrometers. www.gvinstruments.co.uk. Caliper Technologies has acquired Zymark. Zymark becomes a wholly-owned subsidiary of Caliper and will continue to sell products under its own name. www.calipertech.com, www.zymark.com. Thermo Electron has opened its latest customer demonstration facility at Les Ulis, France, just south of Paris. Similar centres opened earlier this year in Yokohama, Japan, and Frankfurt, Germany. Each features a complete laboratory equipped with Thermo’s chromatography, mass spectrometry and spectroscopy product lines; sample preparation and storage equipment; and laboratory informatics software. www.thermo.com. Optical Surfaces has been selected to supply spectrograph optics to the Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (Toulouse, France) for the NARVAL project at the Bernard Lyot telescope (TBL). This will require Optical Surfaces to produce two matching off-axis parabolic mirrors from a single f2.2 Zerodur parent of 680 mm diameter. The two off-axis collimating mirrors will be finished to achieve a uniform lambda/15 rms over the whole working area to ensure the required high throughput and low dispersion. The NARVAL instrument is an adaptation of the ESPaDOnS spectropolarimeter design that currently acts as a bright time instrument for general community use at the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope. The new instrument will be able to capture all polarisation components of stellar light across a complete optical spectrum (370–1000 nm) in a single exposure with a resolving power of about 70,000. www.optisurf.com. Waters and Ionalytics have signed a partnership agreement that allows Waters to market, sell and support the Ionalytics Selectra as a front end instrument to Waters Micromass MS systems. www.waters.com, www.ionalytics.com. Advion Biosciences continues to form partnerships with mass spectrometry manufacturers. A non-exclusive agreement with Applied Biosciences allows for the joint promotion of Advion Biosciences and Applied Biosystems/MDS SCIEX electrospray mass spectrometry products to the life science research market. www.advion.com, www.appliedbiosystems.com. Another agreement with Waters involves the co-marketing of Advion’s NanoMate 100 automated nanoelectrospray system. www.waters.com. |