Combination offers Possibilities in Workflow Improvement


Microscope and imaging systems manufacturer Leica Microsystems has formed a partnership with French start-up Alvéole with aims to make micropatterning with proteins more accessible to researchers for controlling the spatial organisation and biochemical microenvironment of cells.


A combination of Alvéole’s bioengineering platform with Leica microscopes offers potential for precision control over cell shape and growth on standard cell culture substrates and also special substrates used in electron tomography workfl ows, especially EM grids. This signifi cantly improves the accessibility and throughput possible in cryo tomography workfl ow because the desired target cells are now growing at ideal locations for microscopy instead of in less accessible regions.


“We are very excited by how quickly many researchers have improved their cryo-electron tomography workfl ow and throughput thanks to our PRIMO micropatterning system. The partnership with Leica is a unique opportunity to accelerate these improvements and to provide the best possible tools for reproducible, effi cient and simple cryo-ET cell sample preparation,” said Alvéole Marketing Manager Marie-Charlotte Manus.


“For decades Leica Microsystems has been developing and


delivering excellent tools and workfl ow solutions to enable research in cryo electron microscopy. In collaboration with Thermo Fisher Scientifi c we streamlined the Cryo Electron Tomography Workfl ow from plunge freezing up to data analysis. Still, the accessible placement of cells on the EM grid was a major obstacle. Now in cooperation with Alvéole we are solving this issue by the PRIMO micropatterning system. The system ensures, that cells grow in the middle of EM grid squares increasing the accessibility for TEM and SEM investigation massively,” added Dr Julia König, Product Manager at Leica Microsystems.


The fi rst joint communications was in June with the launch of a webinar series presented by a common client (Professor Elizabeth Wright - Morgridge Institute for Research University of Wisconsin-Madison, US).


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Leica DMi1 for cell culture check


DWK Life Sciences GmbH Acquires Müller + Müller- Joh. GmbH + Co KG


Merger brings together Experts in Trial Design


widespread, easy Bayesian method implementation. Partnering with Laiya allows us to smoothly feed into our broad Bayesian software capabilities with ever greater levels of statistical innovation and expertise. We look forward to welcoming Dr Yuan Ji and his colleagues to the team.”


The world-leading manufacturer of laboratory glass and life science packaging materials, DWK Life Sciences, announces the closing of the acquisition of Müller + Müller on September 30st, 2020. Müller + Müller is one of the leading German manufacturers of primary packaging materials made of tubular glass for the pharmaceutical industry. While now being part of the DWK Life Sciences group, Müller + Müller will continue to serve its customers under the same name and will continue to be headed by Managing Director Florian Müller-Stauch.


Müller + Müller is based in Holzminden in Lower Saxony, Germany, and currently employs 135 staff. The family-run company is a key player in the manufacture of vials and has a long history of over 95 years. Thanks to its state-of-the-art technology and continuous process optimisation, Müller + Müller meets the highest quality requirements for pharmaceutical packaging. Every year approx. 300 million glass type I vials are produced at its Holzminden site in accordance with GMP guidelines. Type I borosilicate glass is an excellent material for storing vaccines as the glass is virtually inert. This means that the container glass does not react with its contents and thus represents the standard in vaccine packaging.


DWK Life Sciences is a portfolio company of One Equity Partners, a middle market private equity fi rm that builds market-leading companies by identifying and executing transformative business combinations and partnering with management teams to provide operational support to accelerate growth.


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Yannis Jemiai Dr Yuan Ji


Drug development solutions company Laiya Consulting, specialising in Bayesian adaptive trial designs and implementation, has been acquired by Cytel Inc. The deal follows the recent release of Cytel’s East Alloy platform for easy access to verifi ed Bayesian tools aimed at broadening industry access to innovative clinical trial design methods.


“As we look to make the benefi ts of sophisticated Bayesian methods ever more accessible to drug developers, we’re taking strategic leaps to both bolster our core offerings and streamline their delivery to the market,” said Yannis Jemiai, Chief Scientifi c Offi cer at Cytel. “The release of East Alloy was a tremendous milestone here — effectively removing the daunting computational barriers to more


Founded in 2010, Laiya pioneered the delivery of trial design software using SaaS, which aligns with Cytel’s goal of making all its design software available as a cloud-based service. Laiya’s co-founder Dr Yuan Ji is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and a global authority on Bayesian statistics, having invented multiple Bayesian trial designs and authored more than 150 papers and book chapters on the topic. He also jointly holds an appointment as Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Chicago.


“Bayesian approaches, when applied correctly, open an abundance of opportunity in clinical development, evidenced by our own and Cytel’s extensive work in this fi eld,” said Dr Yuan Ji, Co-founder of Laiya Consulting. “Merging with Cytel means unifying two rich sources of statistical profi ciency to continue setting new standards for Bayesian design, which will ultimately help us to further enable drug developers to profi tably solve the most intricate clinical challenges.”


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Send all your News stories to: heather@intlabmate.com Eppendorf AG Announces Robust First Half-year 2020


The globally active Eppendorf Group was once again able to increase its consolidated revenue in the fi rst half of 2020. Despite the global restrictions necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic, revenue grew by 6.6% to €403.7 million (prior-year: €378.5 million). Operating profi t (EBIT) in the fi rst half of the year remained at around the same high level of 2019, amounting to €65.5 million against €66.7 million in the previous year. This was as expected given the extensive and ongoing investment in growth and technology at the Group’s global locations. The EBIT margin amounts to 16.2% (prior year: 17.6%).


“We’re extremely pleased with the way our business has developed in the fi rst six months of this year,” said Eva van Pelt, Co-CEO of Eppendorf AG. “The growth we achieved stems primarily from the sharp rise in demand for products from our Liquid Handling, Automation and Consumables units. These units manufacture pipettes, consumables and pipetting robots, which are needed both in the area of diagnostics – to perform coronavirus tests, for example – and in the development of vaccines and drugs.”


The Eppendorf Group’s business performance in the fi rst two quarters of 2020 was directly affected by the coronavirus-related restrictions on


business in the individual countries, the closure of research facilities and universities and the global lockdowns. These factors also had an impact on the supply situation at Eppendorf’s production sites.


“In the early months of this year, which were affected most severely by the pandemic, we reacted promptly and ensured that we could maintain our global material availability,” explained Dr Peter Fruhstorfer, Co- CEO at Eppendorf AG. “To this end, we implemented a highly detailed process to permanently monitor the supply chains and evaluate the suppliers’ ability to deliver. That worked very well, ensuring that our production was up and running at all times and that our products were available for use in the fi ght against the coronavirus.”


At present, Eppendorf is signifi cantly expanding the production capacity at its facility in Oldenburg, Holstein, Germany. This is where the company produces high-quality consumables for laboratories and research institutes around the world. Through the construction of two additional production halls, Eppendorf will increase its total capacity there by around 30% as of 2021. The fi rst hall has already been in operation since May, while production in the second hall is scheduled to start in September.


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