Agilent Technologies purchases MassCode Tag programmes

Agilent Technologies has announced the purchase of MassCode technology from a subsidiary of Eurofins, Eurofins MWG Operon.

Gaining access to these utilities, including four families of patents, will allow Agilent to increase its research efforts in the fields of pathogen identification and further leverage its strength in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and mass spectroscopy.

As part of the agreement terms, Eurofins MWG Operon will continue as a supplier of the core component for the new products.

With MassTag PCR, individual tags are attached to DNA primers that correspond to microbial sequences and are then used to amplify nucleic acid isolated from biological samples.

Gustavo Salem, the vice-president and general manager of Agilent’s biological systems division, stated: “This technology addresses a key need by reducing the cost to screen for a large number of pathogens that might be present in a given sample and will accelerate the life science research workflow.”

In other Agilent Technologies news, last week the firm announced that it had increased its offering of scientific products with the introduction of a new solution compatible with its Infiniium 90000A Series oscilloscopes.