Advanced Cell Technology has been awarded a small business grant by the US national Institutes of Health and plans to use the money for research. The firm wants to be able to rapidly label specific lineage restricted cells (LRCs) in cultures of differentiating human embryonic stem cells.

That way, the scientists could then identify specific markers that will act as nametags allowing the LRCs to be purified. The therapeutic potential of each unique set of cells can then be tested.

"We remain hopeful that the NIH will ultimately fund our single cell biopsy technique for generating human embryonic stem cell lines without damaging the developmental potential of the embryos," said William Caldwell IV, CEO of Advanced Cell Technology.

In August 2006, ACT scientists published a paper in the journal Nature explaining its single-cell biopsy technique for generating hESC lines without destroying the developmental potential of the underlying embryos. In June 2007, the company announced that it had successfully produced such a line. That same month, President Bush issued an Executive Order requiring the Secretary of Health and Human Services to conduct and support research on the isolation of pluripotent stem cells derived without destroying or harming human embryos.

"As we've stated before, we believe our single cell biopsy technology directly addresses the President's ethical concerns and, unlike the other potential solutions described in the Executive Order, is available today," added Caldwell.

Meanwhile, Qiagen has been handed an exclusive contract by the Singapore Ministry of Health to supply sample preparation solutions and molecule test for the specific detection of bird flu virus - a.k.a. influenza H5N1 virus.

For the next three years, the firm will supply both manual and automated sample prep technologies for the extraction of viral nucleic acids. Added to those are test kits to specifically identify the avian flu strain.

The volume of each depends on minimum stockpiling levels and the intensity of Singapore's surveillance programme. This contract is just the latest in a long list of bird flu deals for Qiagen. Overall, the firm has signed up more than 80 public and private institutions involved in monitoring infection level to use its procedures or reagents.

There has been more Asian good news for Gene Bridges, which has been granted a Korean Patent Korean Patent No. 10-0751587, entitled "Methods and compositions for directed cloning and sub-cloning using homologous recombination" by the country's patent office.

The patent broadly covers the major areas of Gene Bridges' RED/ET recombineering technology, which is already covered by US and EU patents. This method of DNA engineering allows unlimited cloning, subcloning and modification of DNA at any chosen position. It also permits precise engineering of DNA molecules of any size, including very large ones such as BACs or the E.coli chromosome.

"Recombineering is the technology of choice in DNA engineering and is used worldwide in industry and academia," explained Gary Stevens, CEO of Gene Bridges.

"Korea has an important and growing life sciences sector and we look forward to working with the leading institutes and companies there."

Red/ET is a revolutionary method for DNA engineering. Recombineering with Red/ET allows unlimited cloning, subcloning, and modification of DNA at any chosen position. It permits precise engineering of DNA molecules of any size, including very large ones such as BACs or the E.coli chromosome. Recombineering DNA using Red/ET has a number of advantages over conventional methods:

Evotec has published an update on its planned listing on NASDAQ following its recent acquisition of Renovis.

The German part speciality pharma, part service provider has filed a registration statement on Form F-4 to register its shares with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These shares are expected to be approved for listing in the first half of 2008.

In the meantime, Evotec is busy compiling the financial information required by the SEC as part of the registering, including the representation of previous acquisitions in its books and the revaluation of certain fixed assets. The firm said that all of the adjustments do not result in a material change of Evotec's financial position and are cash neutral for all periods and the firm will publish the revised audited consolidated financial statements at a later date.

And finally, Happy Birthday to BioTek Instruments, which will celebrate its 40th birthday this year, although not until May 24th. The microplate instrumentation and software specialists was founded by physiologist Dr Norman Alpert and originally provided test equipment for hospitals and biomedical institutions.