Acquisition boosts Schott microarrays
subsidiary of the Schott Group, has taken over the microarrays
business division of Quantifoil Micro Tools.
Schott Nexterion, a supplier of DNA microarrays and the youngest subsidiary of the Schott Group, has taken over the microarrays business division of Quantifoil Micro Tools.
The acquisition of the business, based in Jena, Germany, includes the complete product range of the division as well as the development team. Quantifoil's products will now be supplied under the Schott Nexterion umbrella but otherwise will not be subject to any change. Quantifoil will retains its electron microscopy business.
Through the integration of the product range into its own product portfolio Schott Nexterion successfully strengthens its position as a supplier of high-quality microarray solutions, while Quantifoil's products will immediately gain international exposure through Schott's sales channels.
Schott Nexterion develops and markets a wide range of coated and uncoated glass substrates for DNA and protein microarraying for a range of applications, including gene expression monitoring of known and unknown genes, mutation detection and analysis, genotyping and mapping of genomes and clones.
From Quantifoil, Schott will add microarray slides, solutions and buffers and accessories and software. The range includes the QMT line of epoxy, aldehyde, amino and protein slides, QMT blocking and spotting solutions and hybridisation buffer, as well as the FluorIS imaging standardisation tool, IconoCLUST imaging software and QMT VisArray, used to visualise droplet distributions and droplet densities in array quality control.
"Our existing product portfolio is ideally supplemented by the merger," said Dr Dirk van den Broek, a member of the management board at Schott Nexterion.
Indeed, the purchase represents something of a fast-track to extending its range of products for Schott, which to date has launched one product - Nexterion Slide A - which is designed to improve the sensitivity of microarray experiments.
The Mainz-based firm is also gearing up to introduce two new products. Nexterion Slide H is designed to attach proteins and oligonucleotides, while Nexterion Slide MPX is a range of borosilicate glass substrates that are partitioned into multiple arraying regions through the use of an ultra-hydrophobic patterning material.
The latter product will allow multiple assays to be run in parallel, cutting costs, according to the firm. Both these products are scheduled for launch "in the near future", according to the Schott Nexterion.
