Agilent unveils new software
designed to improve its 2100 Bioanalyser and 1100 HPLC products.
Agilent Technologies has this week released two software applications that are designed at improving two of its existing product offerings.
The LabChip package is designed to improve the utility of the 2100 Bioanalyser in the development and manufacture of protein-based therapeutics, and the the Agilent ChemStation software provides flexible functionality for preparative high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), says the company.
The launch of the LabChip software is the first element in the company's plan in making the product a compliance solution for customers in regulated environments.
Agilent says that the new software relates both to the GLP/GMP regulations, and to the 21 CFR Part 11 FDA regulations. At the moment the pharmaceutical industry uses technologies such as SDS-PAGE (a gel electrophoresis technique) to check the quality of protein samples. These techniques are wet-lab based and the company says that they cannot be tracked in compliance with the FDA's regulations.
However, when the Bioanalyser is combined with LabChip, it can be used to address the quality and quantity of proteins in a sample. The company claims that this provides an alternative to the gel electrophoresis technique.
The next step for Agilent is to make the LabChip software controlled through security packed software. LabChip will be able to produce an electronic output file which can be tracked digitally to support compliance with the 21 CFR Part 11 standards, the company added.
The 2100 Bioanalyser, once combined with the software, provides a consolidated platform for all Bioanalyser assays, which are used to assess the quality and quantity of DNA, RNA and proteins. This eliminates the need for two separate software modules, says the company.
The company claims that the software includes improved integrator and manual integration capabilities, normal and advanced user modes, colour-coded result flagging tool, enhanced reporting export and printing functions, as well as customisable result tables and gel-like images.
A desktop version of the Bioanalyser software is priced at $19,855 (€17,386) and it is also available as a laptop unit at $21,400. An electrophoresis set is available at $4,738 and a flow cytometry set for $6,180.
Agilent 1100 Series liquid chromatography
The second software released this week is the Agilent ChemStation. The company claims that it provides flexible functionality for preparative HPLC, enabling users to begin their experiments with a basic solution and allowing them to add modules for specific needs, the company claims.
The 1100 Series purification platform can be configured with a wide range of hardware modules, including pumps, auto-injectors, fraction collectors and detectors to optimise recovery and purity for different sample quantities.
There are three versions of the new software, namely a Basic Purification Solution that provides an easy roiute to 21 CFR Part 11 compliance, and Advanced Purification Solution which integrates purification workflow and easily manages a large number of samples, and a Walk-Up Purification Solution - designed for non-expert users.
Agilent says that the software is available at $7,000 (€6,125) for the Basic version, $11,000 for the Advanced and $9,000 for the Walk-Up.
