Millipore and Guava Technologies to create solutions for cell biology market

US companies Millipore Corporation and Guava Technologies have established a long-term partnership to deliver integrated flow cytometry solutions to scientists conducting research in cell biology, including stem cell research.

The companies will offer scientists superior technical performance, higher quality data, and greater accessibility to this analytical platform than is currently available.

Flow cytometry is a technique used by scientists to measure changes in protein expression in individual cells that may occur as a consequence of many important factors such as stem cell differentiation, disease, aging, cancer development, drug treatment, and toxicity. The combination of Millipore's and Guava's capabilities will integrate instrumentation, reagent kits, validated protocols, and technical support to bring the advantages of flow cytometry to the bench tops of cell biologists.

"Our partnership with Guava creates the potential for us to fundamentally improve the way that cell biology research is conducted," said Martin Madaus, president & ceo of Millipore. "The combination of Millipore sample prep and reagents with Guava's instrument platform will create an integrated offering, giving scientists a menu of plug and play solutions to help them generate high quality results that advance their research. The collaboration allows us to add considerable value to the highly differentiated antibody portfolio and assay development capabilities that came with our serologicals acquisition."

Under the terms of the partnership, Millipore will gain exclusive rights to distribute Guava's non-clinical instrumentation within defined fields in North America, Europe and other countries in Asia. Additionally, Millipore will provide field service for all Guava instrumentation in the same geographies. Millipore will also develop co-branded reagent kits specifically for Guava's flow cytometers. Finally, Millipore and Guava Technologies will work together to develop a new generation of instrumentation with enhanced performance and functionality.

The parties plan to launch co-branded products to the market in July 2008.