Corning^® Epic^® System Wins ALA New Product Award

Corning Incorporated today announced that the Corning^® Epic^® System was recently recognized by the Association for Lab Automation (ALA) with the organization's first ever New Product Award.

ALA, a multi-disciplinary, scientific association spanning diverse industries and technology sectors, designated the Epic System as one of the best new products for 2007 during the closing plenary session at LabAutomation 2007. Held at the Palm Springs Convention Center in Palm Springs, California from January 27-31, LabAutomation is the world’s leading conference and exhibition on emerging laboratory technologies. The conference, which played host to some 4,600 attendees, featured 172 poster presentations, and more than 200 exhibitors. Registrants traveled to Palm Springs from 39 countries around the world.

Criteria for winning the award included extraordinary technical originality, expected impact on the field of Laboratory Automation, and breadth of market opportunity.

The Epic System is a high-throughput label-free screening platform based on optical biosensor technology. The system performs both biochemical and cell-based drug discovery applications and offers drug developers the ability to evaluate promising new drug targets. It also allows for the observation of direct biological interactions not previously detectable in high-throughput applications.

The system uses optical technology to eliminate the need for labels and consists of two basic components: a disposable 384-well microplate with integrated biosensors and a high-throughput screening (HTS) compatible microplate reader that permits screening of up to 40,000 wells in an eight-hour period. Because it makes use of an industry standard microplate format, the Epic System can be easily integrated with existing facilities and instrumentation.

"Corning and the Epic team are very pleased with this recognition by industry thought leaders in the field of laboratory technologies" said Tom Lynch, business manager, Corning^® Epic^® System. "Winning the 2007 ALA New Product Award reaffirms our belief that the Epic System will create significant value and have a lasting impact within drug discovery."