APAF signs seven figure deal with Bio-Rad

In a deal described by its authors as a "seven figure agreement", manufacturer Bio-Rad Laboratories is to link with the Australian Proteome Analysis Facility (APAF) to develop products and training tools for the proteomics market.

Although reluctant to put exact numbers on the amount, Bio-Rad Asia Pacific president, Edward Stauber, said his company would be investing multiple millions of dollars over three years in what he described as "a milestone-based deal".

"The exact money is open-ended. If research throws up an opportunity, we will pour more money in," he said.

"The proteomics market is growing by anything from 30 to 60 per cent per annum, and we expect to get sales of anything around US$50 million ($AUD76.24 million) as a result of what this agreement can bring," he added.

Director of APAF, professor Mark Baker, said the deal would be a major boost for the development of proteomic array technologies, which at the moment were still being defined by existing players in the market. The agreement was described as "a re-invigoration of a previous successful partnership" between the two, and will build on the product line based on the APAF co-developed ProteomeWorks products currently distributed worldwide by Bio-Rad

"APAF is excited about this new collaboration with Bio-Rad, as it aims to develop novel products that break the current bottlenecks associated with proteomics workflows," he asserted.

As part of the development collaboration, APAF will expand its bioinformatics capability by implementing and developing its WorksBase proteomics database system across the APAF network. This now incorporates four Australian nodes at Macquarie University, University of NSW, University of Sydney & TGR Biosciences in Adelaide. The agreement also includes a technology exchange factor, which will considerably expand APAF's product capability to its existing research skills.

Tom Slyker, program manager for APAF's ProteomeWorks range of products commented the deal would add the strength and knowledge of Bio-Rad's expertise to APAF's leading proteomic capability to help develop more advanced customer products.

Baker said the new agreement would be driven by microbial proteomics expert Dr Stuart Cordwell and would lead to: "quantum leaps in the depth of the discovery space afforded by existing proteomic array technologies."