Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Millipore and Agilent team on epigenetic kits

By Mass High Tech Staff

Billerica life sciences company Millipore Corp. has teamed up with California genomics research firm Agilent Technologies Inc. in producing kits to simplify understanding of the relationship between DNA and proteins in gene regulation.

The kits, called ChIP (chromatin immunoprecipitation) kits, are a specialty of Millipore (NYSE: MIL), along with the company’s expertise in reagents and antibodies. Agilent brings its microarray and data analysis experience to the collaboration.

The combined effort between the two companies is expected to improve epigenetic research productivity, including better understanding of chromatin state mapping and reproducible genomic profiling data, according to Geoffrey Crouse, vice president of Millipore life science strategic business unit.

In recent news, Millipore has put plenty of effort into its stem cell business.

In July, Millipore awarded a $100,000 grant to stem cell researcher Sangeeta Bhatia from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston to find cures for deadly diseases such as cancer. Bhatia is the first grant recipient in a program formed in partnership with the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, in which Millipore committed $500,000 for biomedical research and the institute agreed to provide lists of grant candidates.

In June, Millipore awarded a $150,000 grant to Jeanne Loring, founding director at the California-based Scripps Research Institute, for her stem cell research work.

Millipore specializes in technologies, tools and services for bioscience research and biopharmaceutical manufacturing companies. The company employs 6,000 workers in 47 countries. The company reported 2007 net income of $136 million on revenue of $1.5 billion.