- Email: [email protected]
Azur to setup European HQ
Biosensors & Bioelectronics VoL 12 No. 3 (1997)
News and Market Update The Section is a strop-shot of what is happening now in the field of biosensors and bioelectronics. Edited from international printed and electronic media, using research, application, novelty and innovation as key words, we give you the pearls!
Keeping a Laboratory Notebook In order to take advantage of a major change in US Patent Law, inventors outside the USA must learn to keep records of their work using formal laboratory notebooks corroborated on a regular basis. The need for this procedure has arisen because in detenninaling priority of invention, the USA has retained the 'first to invent' system rather than switch to the rest-of-the-world's 'first to file' system. However, the USA has extended its system, so now evidence of inventive acts that took place outside the USA can be used to establish the date of invention. This evidence must be up to court standards. Finally, this change in US law will require a major change in attitude in record keeping by inventors outside the USA wishing to maximise their changes of obtaining US patents. A booklet entitled 'Keeping a Laboratory Notebook' is available from BTG plc. This booklet explains the new ground rules and defines the variables. It should be a primary source for all involved in any project that has the least glimmer of patent potential; and/or for use as good laboratory practice. For further informaaon contact: BTG plc, Marketing Division, 101 Newington Causeway, London SE1 6BU, UK, tel: [44J 171 403 6666, fax: [44] 171 403 7586, email: btguk@btgplc. corn; BTG USA plc, 2200 Renaissance Boulevard, Gulph Mills, PA 19406, USA, tel: [1J 610 278 1660, fax: [1] 10 278 1605, email:
0956-5663/97/$17.00 © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd
[email protected]; Rayden (Japan) Ltd, Sholan Building 4F, 11-12 8-Chome, Ginza, Chou-ku, Tokyo 104, Japan, tel: [81J 3 3571 8023, fax: [81] 3 35 71 8025 Enzyme switches A team of researchers, consisting of biochemists, electronic engineers and physicists from the UK Universities of Birmingham and Glasgow have found a way to turn an enzyme on and off electrically. Electronics Weekly 27~ November 1996 reports that the team have experimented with the chemical that allow fireflies to glow (because it is easy to see if you are having an effect). However, the potential for using luciferase commercially is (presently) in doubt because its costs around £50 a nag and like most biological materials it decays quickly. Azur to setup European HQ Azur Environmental, formerly Microbic Corporation, is to relocate its headquarters to the UK so as to target the European market with its products for monitoring the quality of soils, water and other environmental resources. Protecting and ensuring the safety and quality of the environment has now become a major global concern; and with this in mind Azur looks forward to the release of two major new products in 1997 and anticipates new corporate partnerships to exploit their technology base. The Company's test systems use luminescent microorganisms as biosensors which respond to constituents in the samples.
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Biosensors & Bioelectronics Vol. 12 No. 3 (1997)
A trial on-line toxicity monitoring system using Azur's biosensors technology has been installed at Yorkshire Water (in the UK), with the hardware being provided by Siemens Environmental Systems - a strategic alliance partner of Azur. The increasing regulatory pressure in the UK and Europe for toxicity monitoring leads Azur to anticipate higher medium-term growth in this economic bloc than in the USA. However, Azur is retaining its Californian base and is negotiating six American beta-test sites for its toxicity testing system.
Monitoring brain-cell oxygen levels Laser Focus World September 1996 reports that doctors at Boston's Children Hospital are using near infrared (NIR) diode-laser based spectrometer to develop methods for directly monitoring brain-cell oxygen levels in infants. One goal of the research is to formulate techniques for identifying infants at risk due to brain-cell oxygen deprivation during cardiac surgery, which is performed on nearly 14,000 infants annually. During these operations blood flow may be stopped for upwards of an hour, so direct monitoring of brain-cell oxygen, with promising drugs entering trials, will widen the currently narrow window of resuscitation. The net result will be more time for successful brain surgery with less risk of brain damage. A successful, compact, diode-based system may be also be used in monitoring oxygen in fetal brains during childbirth as well as in premature infants and those with hydrocephalus. Although useful with infants, the spectrometer is less likely to be used in the adult brain-oxygen monitoring because a well-developed fluid membrane surrounds a mature brain. This acts as a light pipe conducting some of the NIR light around the brain instead of through it. Consequently, because the system detects only transmitted light, it cannot isolate oxygen content in specific regions of the brain. Work however is ongoing into higher-spectral-resolution lightimaging devices to allow such differentiation.
ii
New Endoscope Accorrfmgto The Japan Times of November 24th 1996, a medical team at Kitasato has developed an ultrasonic endoscope that takes three dimensional photographs of cancerous tissue in the digestive organs and is using it for diagnosis and treatment. The endoscope has an ultrasonic oscillator that makes it possible to observe the mucous membrane surface of digestive organs, as well as the fault planes of affected areas, so improving the accuracy of medical examination by leaps and bounds. Since late 1994 the medical team, led by Dr Mitsuhiro Kida have examined 28 stomach cancer cases and two esophagus cancer cases. The new endoscope enabled the team to ascertain the size and other details more accurately that with the conventional endoscope, and thus did not have to remove unaffected parts. The team is now concentrating on improving the endoscope to make operation easier and photographs more accurate. The eyes have it Microvision Inc., of Seattle, who have licensed VID technology on an exclusive basis from the University of Washington has filed to sell 2m units on the NASDAQ Stock Market in an initial public offering at between $8 and $10 each. The Company will use the proceeds in part to fund research and development on 'virtual retinal display' technology. VID technology scans electronically generated images directly onto the retina of the viewer's eye, which eliminates the need for screens or external projected images. Instead users would use batteryoperated miniaturised light-weight viewing devices which would either be held or incorporated into eye-glasses that serve as 'headphones for the eyes'. According to The Financial Post of 25th July 1996 potential customers include manufacturers of wireless and cellular communications device that incorporate personal display units for viewing fax, electronic mails and graphic images.
News and Market Update The Section is a strop-shot of what is happening now in the field of biosensors and bioelectronics. Edited from international printed and electronic media, using research, application, novelty and innovation as key words, we give you the pearls!
Keeping a Laboratory Notebook In order to take advantage of a major change in US Patent Law, inventors outside the USA must learn to keep records of their work using formal laboratory notebooks corroborated on a regular basis. The need for this procedure has arisen because in detenninaling priority of invention, the USA has retained the 'first to invent' system rather than switch to the rest-of-the-world's 'first to file' system. However, the USA has extended its system, so now evidence of inventive acts that took place outside the USA can be used to establish the date of invention. This evidence must be up to court standards. Finally, this change in US law will require a major change in attitude in record keeping by inventors outside the USA wishing to maximise their changes of obtaining US patents. A booklet entitled 'Keeping a Laboratory Notebook' is available from BTG plc. This booklet explains the new ground rules and defines the variables. It should be a primary source for all involved in any project that has the least glimmer of patent potential; and/or for use as good laboratory practice. For further informaaon contact: BTG plc, Marketing Division, 101 Newington Causeway, London SE1 6BU, UK, tel: [44J 171 403 6666, fax: [44] 171 403 7586, email: btguk@btgplc. corn; BTG USA plc, 2200 Renaissance Boulevard, Gulph Mills, PA 19406, USA, tel: [1J 610 278 1660, fax: [1] 10 278 1605, email:
0956-5663/97/$17.00 © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd
[email protected]; Rayden (Japan) Ltd, Sholan Building 4F, 11-12 8-Chome, Ginza, Chou-ku, Tokyo 104, Japan, tel: [81J 3 3571 8023, fax: [81] 3 35 71 8025 Enzyme switches A team of researchers, consisting of biochemists, electronic engineers and physicists from the UK Universities of Birmingham and Glasgow have found a way to turn an enzyme on and off electrically. Electronics Weekly 27~ November 1996 reports that the team have experimented with the chemical that allow fireflies to glow (because it is easy to see if you are having an effect). However, the potential for using luciferase commercially is (presently) in doubt because its costs around £50 a nag and like most biological materials it decays quickly. Azur to setup European HQ Azur Environmental, formerly Microbic Corporation, is to relocate its headquarters to the UK so as to target the European market with its products for monitoring the quality of soils, water and other environmental resources. Protecting and ensuring the safety and quality of the environment has now become a major global concern; and with this in mind Azur looks forward to the release of two major new products in 1997 and anticipates new corporate partnerships to exploit their technology base. The Company's test systems use luminescent microorganisms as biosensors which respond to constituents in the samples.
i
....`.....................................................................................
Biosensors & Bioelectronics Vol. 12 No. 3 (1997)
A trial on-line toxicity monitoring system using Azur's biosensors technology has been installed at Yorkshire Water (in the UK), with the hardware being provided by Siemens Environmental Systems - a strategic alliance partner of Azur. The increasing regulatory pressure in the UK and Europe for toxicity monitoring leads Azur to anticipate higher medium-term growth in this economic bloc than in the USA. However, Azur is retaining its Californian base and is negotiating six American beta-test sites for its toxicity testing system.
Monitoring brain-cell oxygen levels Laser Focus World September 1996 reports that doctors at Boston's Children Hospital are using near infrared (NIR) diode-laser based spectrometer to develop methods for directly monitoring brain-cell oxygen levels in infants. One goal of the research is to formulate techniques for identifying infants at risk due to brain-cell oxygen deprivation during cardiac surgery, which is performed on nearly 14,000 infants annually. During these operations blood flow may be stopped for upwards of an hour, so direct monitoring of brain-cell oxygen, with promising drugs entering trials, will widen the currently narrow window of resuscitation. The net result will be more time for successful brain surgery with less risk of brain damage. A successful, compact, diode-based system may be also be used in monitoring oxygen in fetal brains during childbirth as well as in premature infants and those with hydrocephalus. Although useful with infants, the spectrometer is less likely to be used in the adult brain-oxygen monitoring because a well-developed fluid membrane surrounds a mature brain. This acts as a light pipe conducting some of the NIR light around the brain instead of through it. Consequently, because the system detects only transmitted light, it cannot isolate oxygen content in specific regions of the brain. Work however is ongoing into higher-spectral-resolution lightimaging devices to allow such differentiation.
ii
New Endoscope Accorrfmgto The Japan Times of November 24th 1996, a medical team at Kitasato has developed an ultrasonic endoscope that takes three dimensional photographs of cancerous tissue in the digestive organs and is using it for diagnosis and treatment. The endoscope has an ultrasonic oscillator that makes it possible to observe the mucous membrane surface of digestive organs, as well as the fault planes of affected areas, so improving the accuracy of medical examination by leaps and bounds. Since late 1994 the medical team, led by Dr Mitsuhiro Kida have examined 28 stomach cancer cases and two esophagus cancer cases. The new endoscope enabled the team to ascertain the size and other details more accurately that with the conventional endoscope, and thus did not have to remove unaffected parts. The team is now concentrating on improving the endoscope to make operation easier and photographs more accurate. The eyes have it Microvision Inc., of Seattle, who have licensed VID technology on an exclusive basis from the University of Washington has filed to sell 2m units on the NASDAQ Stock Market in an initial public offering at between $8 and $10 each. The Company will use the proceeds in part to fund research and development on 'virtual retinal display' technology. VID technology scans electronically generated images directly onto the retina of the viewer's eye, which eliminates the need for screens or external projected images. Instead users would use batteryoperated miniaturised light-weight viewing devices which would either be held or incorporated into eye-glasses that serve as 'headphones for the eyes'. According to The Financial Post of 25th July 1996 potential customers include manufacturers of wireless and cellular communications device that incorporate personal display units for viewing fax, electronic mails and graphic images.