Tecan becomes a system integrator

Tecan AG has historically been a supplier of laboratory equipment, including detection products, automation, liquid handling and software, selling each technology separately, with no attempt at integration. However, the company now plans to pull all these pieces together and supply customers with an integrated equipment platform with applications in proteomics, functional genomics, and drug discovery.

According to CEO Emile Sutcliffe, Tecan plans to look at two areas in the field of functional genomics, SNP identification and gene mapping to produce 3-D gene expression maps. In the area of SNP analysis, in July TECN acquired Gamera Bioscience Corp. (Boston, Mass.), now called Tecan Boston, which brought a microfluidics platform capable of miniaturizing laboratory systems, which allows the reduced use of reagents. TECN (SWX:TECN, Hombrechtikon, Switzerland) already has signed up Orchid BioSciences Inc. (ORCH, Princeton, N.J.) as a customer of the SNP platform...