Pfenex Inc., announced today that Jerry Ngai, Scientist, will be a featured speaker at the 241st American Chemical Society (ACS) Meeting & Exposition. Ngai’s presentation will detail the utility of the Pfenex Expression Technology™ platform to rapidly establish production processes for proteins that cannot be expressed in other host systems.

In recent years, development of vaccines has attracted increasing attention, with the launch of several blockbuster vaccines. Threats of pandemics and bioterrorism, and the need to reduce healthcare costs, has resulted in increased interest in this area from government agencies. Previous efforts in producing a significant number of vaccine antigens and carrier proteins have resulted in improperly folded or truncated protein. Pfenex Inc. has built an expression platform that directly deals with these challenges resulting in a robust technology that can rapidly and cost effectively produce vaccine components.

“Unlike platform processes commonly used for monoclonal antibody expression and purification, the diversity of vaccine antigens requires fermentation and purification processes tailored to each protein.” Ngai explains. “Pfēnex Expression TechnologyTM employs a toolbox of defined strains containing custom-designed combinations of genetic elements, including a broad array of protease-deficient strains to minimize proteolytic degradation; resulting in high level expression of a broad variety of vaccine antigens/carriers. Pfenex routinely leverages the platform to solve purification challenges which ultimately results in a more efficient and hence cost effective production process.” Ngai will be sharing the details regarding the Pfēnex Expression TechnologyTM approach as well as case studies at the ACS conference.

Conference attendees are encourage to attend the session scheduled for Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at 4:20pm as part of the Division of Biochemical Technology, down-stream processing track. The conference will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, CA and will feature a select group of speakers from academia and industry. For additional information please visit the Pfenex Inc. website.

About Pfenex Inc.
Pfenex Inc. is a protein production company leveraging the unique and powerful Pfenex Expression Technology™ platform based on the microorganism, Pseudomonas fluorescens, for the production of research proteins, reagent proteins, biosimilars and innovator biopharmaceuticals. For more information, please visit www.pfenex.com

About the American Chemical Society Meeting & Exposition
With more than 163,000 members, the American Chemical Society (ACS) is the world’s largest scientific society and one of the world’s leading sources of authoritative scientific information. A nonprofit organization, chartered by Congress, ACS is at the forefront of the evolving worldwide chemical enterprise and the premier professional home for chemists, chemical engineers and related professions around the globe.

Biochemical Technology (BIOT) is a division of the American Chemical Society. The mission of the division is to promote the exchange of information among academic and industrial researchers regarding technology utilizing life-based systems to produce useful products and services.

The 241st ACS National Meeting & Exposition is being held at the Anaheim Convention, March 27-31.

Finesse Solutions, LLC, a manufacturer of measurement and control solutions for life sciences process applications, announced a live demonstration of its new SmartBagproduct for rocker bioreactors at Interphex 2011 in New York, March 29-31.

Bioprocessing specialists will get aclose-up look at the first robustsingle-use of theSensorPaksolution that has been seamlessly integrated into a pillow bag and is resistant to gamma radiation sterilization. SmartBags are designed to be plug-and-play bio-processingcontainers having full measurement capability for at least 21 days.

The SmartBagSensorPak leverages TruFluor pH and dissolved oxygen phase fluorometrictechnologyin a compact assembly that is pre-calibrated using a SmartChip and provides accurate, drift-free, in-situ measurements. The combined pH and DO optical reader uses advanced optical components including a large area photodiode that minimizes photo-degradation of the active sensing elements. The SensorPak also leverages TruFluor temperature 316L stainless steel thermal window for highly stable readings. The SensorPak is welded into the single-use vessel and eliminates the need for sterile connectors and their associated complications such as leakage and batch contamination. All wetted materials of the SensorPak are USP class VI compliant and being identical to TruFluor, allow directly measurement comparisons and scale-up from 10L rocker bags to 2,000L SUBs.

A SmartBag retrofit for the most commonly utilized rocker platform trays will be demonstrated at the show, along with the T300 labscale controller for gas and liquid management. According to Finesse Solutions CTO Dr. Mark Selker, “It is a pleasure to introduceSmartPak technology and the Smartbag to the bioprocessing market at such a major event. This product is optimized for accuracy, lifetime, and ease of use. We anticipate that the SensorPakwill provide a unique, complete solution for single-use seed train bio-processing applications, which are still in great need of reliable and trustworthy key process parameter measurements.”

About Finesse Solutions, LLC
California-based Finesse Solutions, LLC, has established a proven record in providing turn-key, scalable solutions for single-use upstream bio-processing. The Finesse product platform includes an extensive portfolio of novel disposable sensors, modular configure-to-order automation hardware, and intelligent software that can harmonize global bio-process information and technology transfer. Finesse also offers a complete set of services including startup, commissioning, and validation for rapid and reliable deployment of single-use equipment into cGMP manufacturing applications. For more information, please visit us at www.finesse.com.

Hosted Solution will Improve Patient Outcomes, Research and Collaboration by Integrating Clinical and Molecular Data from Three Major National Health Service Trusts and Leading University

Guildford, UK, and Burlington, Mass., March 9, 2011 - IDBS, a global provider of innovative data management, analytics and modeling solutions, today announced that it will provide a unique, enterprise translational medicine platform for the Integrated Cancer Centre at King’s Health Partners. The Oncology Research Information System, (ORIS), designed at the Integrated Cancer Centre and developed and delivered by IDBS, will enable King’s Health Partners to develop targeted, personalized, cancer therapies according to the specific genetic and other characteristics of individual patients. This will improve the likelihood and number of successful treatment outcomes.

ORIS is the first of its kind: a single cross-organizational research platform that will bring together patient data for all King’s Health Partner’s cancer cases, accounting for a quarter of hospital beds in London. This comprehensive approach to cancer research has never before been able to be handled in one IT platform. ORIS will provide a unique translational medicine hub, handling the complex analytical demands of translational research and improving collaboration between the partners - King’s College London University, King’s College Hospital, Guy’s and St Thomas’ and South London and the Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts.

IDBS, through the ORIS platform and associated organizational changes, will provide King’s Health Partners with:

• improved cancer treatment through secure knowledge sharing of patient outcome information;
• one secure searchable hub for clinical, diagnostic, pathological, sample, research and genomics centric information integrated from multiple sources;
• highly secure information governance and pseudonymization procedures to protect patient confidentiality;
• comprehensive scientific and statistical analytics to support requirements across research, teaching and clinical needs;
• reduced complexity with high security through scalable, flexible hosting and rigorous access control;
• powerful visualization of translational research data and an evaluation of data quality;
• an enhanced competitive position for attracting pharmaceutical and other research partners.

“Despite all the progress medical science has made, many cancer patients are still treated with protocols identified through a process of trial and error. Our aim is to change this through a targeted approach to cancer therapy, which will improve outcomes and patient quality of life,” said Professor Peter Parker, PhD, FRS, Head of the Division of Cancer Studies and R&D Lead for the Integrated Cancer Centre at King’s Health Partners. “Critical to this effort is a new collaboration between the different research and healthcare organizations involved and, above all, access to relevant data and analytics to enable our multi-disciplinary research teams to deliver outcome-based therapies.”

“During our extensive competitive tender process, IDBS clearly demonstrated a unique understanding of the complexities of translational medicine, core software provision and solution integration that we required for this program,” continued Professor Parker.

“IDBS understands that the improvement of patient outcomes will come from the successful delivery of targeted treatments, which requires a fundamental change in the approach healthcare organizations take to using increasingly complex research information and sharing of the clinical knowledge they generate,” said Neil Kipling, founder and CEO of IDBS. “Our broad understanding of the healthcare and pharmaceutical research sectors enables us to deliver the enabling technologies required to make the promise of personalized medicine a reality. The ORIS project further validates our strategy to design and build enterprise data management and analytics systems targeted at improving healthcare provision in the UK and worldwide.”

This is the first step in a five-year strategic relationship that could eventually expand to cover all disease areas including all oncology disorders and cardiovascular disease.

About King’s Health Partners
King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) is a pioneering collaboration between King’s College London, and Guy’s and St Thomas’, King’s College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts

King’s Health Partners is one of only five AHSCs in the UK and brings together an unrivalled range and depth of clinical and research expertise, spanning both physical and mental health. Our combined strengths will drive improvements in care for patients, allowing them to benefit from breakthroughs in medical science and receive leading edge treatment at the earliest possible opportunity.

For more information, visit www.kingshealthpartners.org

About IDBS
IDBS is a global provider of innovative enterprise data management, analytics and modeling solutions. The company’s uniquely sophisticated platform technologies are used by more than 200 pharmaceutical companies, major healthcare providers, global leaders in academic study, and high tech companies to increase efficiency, reduce costs and improve the productivity of industrial R&D and clinical research. IDBS is clearly differentiated by its unique combination of award-winning enterprise technologies and domain knowledge in R&D.

IDBS’ solutions help scientists, hospitals and R&D businesses produce the world’s newest therapeutics, diagnostics and personalized treatments, high-tech materials and consumer products, faster, cleaner engines and fuels, breakthroughs in productive agriculture, healthy, safer food products, and high tech materials and products.

Founded in 1989 and privately held, IDBS is headquartered in Guildford, UK with a direct sales and support presence worldwide. IDBS is a Profit Track 100 company and the recipient of multiple awards including the Frost and Sullivan ‘Enabling Technology’ Award in R&D data management for 2010. For regular updates follow us on Twitter @IDBSsoftware.

www.idbs.com

SciLog, Inc. announces the issuance of the second of two single-use sensor patents, US 7,788,047 and US 7,857,506 “Disposable, Pre-Calibrated, Pre-Validated Sensors for Use in Bio-Processing Applications.” The first patent was issued in September 2010.

“This patented technology addresses the challenges of the Process Analytical Technology (PAT) initiative as it applies to single-use sensors in downstream bio-processing” commented Karl G. Schick, Ph.D., VP of R&D at SciLog Inc.

SciLog’s single-use, pre-calibrated sensors:  Provide real-time analytical data. Enable pre-sterilized, closed-loop processing environments. Can be integrated into single-use, gamma-irradiated fluid pathways (SciLog US patents 6,712,963 and US 7,052,603), enable automation and automated data acquisition for single-use platforms.

SciLog manufactures disposable, pre-calibrated, single-use conductivity (SciCon), pressure (SciPres) and temperature (SciTemp) sensors. The sensors are designed with process scalability in mind. They are available in five different fluid connection sizes, ranging from Luer (Laboratory) to 1.0” TC (GMP bio-processing), are available in each of the sensor families. Each sensor is NIST traceable by sensor ID and comes with a calibration certificate and appropriate compliance statements. Sensor ID and associated calibration data are stored in a gamma-stable memory residing within the sensor. The stored calibration data is stable for over two years. For more information, go to www.scilog.com/sensors.

These patents expand SciLog’s patent position in downstream, single-use technology. In addition to the newly issued sensor patents, SciLog has received two prior patents (US Patent 6,712,963 and 7,052,603) that deal with “Single-use Manifolds for Automated, Aseptic Transfer of Solutions in Bio-Processing Applications”. SciLog has also received US Patent 7,410,587 for “Liquid Handling for Filtration and Liquid Chromatography”. Specifically, these patents address the challenges and provide solutions relevant to downstream, single-use purification by tangential flow filtration (TFF), preparative chromatography and normal flow filtration (NFF).

SciLog offers licensing arrangements of its single-use technology to interested parties.