Ben Moshiri, senior director of the AB Sciex separations business, told us the move is focused on offering more established expertise in microfluidity so that combination of the services can help AB push further into the biologics and proteomics markets.
This combination of the divisions includes the transition of personnel as well as CE technologies and resources from Beckman Coulter to AB. The move will also be a relatively easy transition as both companies are owned by Danaher Corporation, Moshiri said.
AB Sciex focuses on quantitation in mass spectrometry for small molecules but this new venture will give the company “a stronger presence with biologics customers,” Moshiri said.
This is just the latest in a concerted effort to offer more services for biologics developers. Last month the company unveiled three new tools for biological researchers to better identify and quantitate proteins, peptides, metabolites and lipids. AB aims to deliver an additional level of separation between the liquid chromatography (LC) system and the mass spectrometer, which can be applied at the molecular level, the biological sub-class level or for the general removal of background interferences.
By working with BC, AB will look to develop integrated applications that provide fast and efficient separations of drugs, drug metabolites, organic acids, amino acids, low molecular weight amines, peptides, nucleic acids and nucleosides.
“The CE can be used as a front-end to mass spec, and can be used with any mass spectrometer,” Moshiri added on how the partnership will play out.
Mass spectrometry is one of the key techniques in protein characterization, and some are looking to advance the field to help probe protein higher order structures and map epitopes, according to a US NIH study on the trends in mass spec.