Tuesday, February 3, 2009

PerkinElmer picks up LED maker Opto Technology

By Mass High Tech staff

Laboratory and research equipment company PerkinElmer Inc. has purchased for an undisclosed amount Opto Technology Inc., an Illinois supplier of lighting components and subsystems based on light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

Waltham-based PerkinElmer (NYSE: PKI) says it will add Opto Technology’s optical subsystems to its own portfolio of LED components aimed at supplying original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) serving the health, safety and security markets. No financial details of the acquisition were released. PerkinElmer’s LED products fall under its Environmental Health business.

Last month, PerkinElmer reported it had extended a research collaboration with the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, based in Houston, to explore a cord blood expansion technology dubbed co-culture. The trial will determine if the use of co-culture is safe and can deliver more rapid engraftment in adults needing cord blood transplants.

Cord blood is a source of stem cells used to treat more than 70 serious diseases, including cancer. Despite this, the quantity of stem cells available in a single umbilical cord blood unit is frequently insufficient to treat adult patients. However, using a cord blood expansion technology to increase the number of stem cells harvested from a single cord blood unit, doctors can potentially treat more patients.

PerkinElmer reported revenue of $1.8 billion in 2007 and has some 9,100 employees serving customers in 150 countries.