Cancer research gets technical

Agilent Technologies has been named the first technology company to become a sustaining member of the European Association for Cancer Research (EACR), joining the likes of pharmaceutical heavyweights AstraZeneca, Aventis, Novartis and Schering AG.

Officials at EACR have welcomed the latest addition and look forward to discussing the technological requirements of their 5000 members with the company. Agilent adds that EACR members could also receive early access to technologies entering the company’s beta testing programmes. EACR council member Gilbert Lenoir, head of research at the Institut Gustave-Roussy (IGR), Villejuif, France, will particularly welcome the decision since his organisation has just completed a widely acclaimed project investigating skin melanoma using whole human genome microarray technology introduced by Agilent earlier this year.

IGR has just been certified under the company’s microarray service provider programme, according to an announcement from Agilent in July. This is the first such certification in Europe and flags IGR as a key provider of microarray processing and data analysis services worldwide.

The institute supports a medical team treating 42,000 patients annually. Alongside this clinical work, there are 300 scientists involved in research and teaching. IGR plans to create what officials claim will be the leading French centre for research and treatment of cancer with partnerships in the public and private sector.

In order to gain certification for Agilent’s microarray service provider programme, lab staff at IGR had to complete in-depth training, and the laboratory will be assessed each year.

’Becoming an Agilent certified microarray service provider is highly significant to IGR since it serves to formalise and confirm the quality of our services and platforms to our many international research partners,’ said Lenoir in a statement.

Bea Perks