Roche and ACEA enter exclusive world-wide agreement

Roche and ACEA Biosciences Inc., San Diego, USA today announced that they have entered into an exclusive agreement for the development, supply and distribution for ACEA Bioscience’s real-time cell assay technology. Under the terms of the agreement, RAS will exclusively market systems for real-time cell analysis, based on ACEA Bioscience's impedance-based technology. This technology is designed for a multitude of applications spanning from short term kinetic analysis, for example for measuring effects on G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), to assays for cell proliferation, cytotoxicity, and even cell migration and invasion. Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed.

“After completing our product portfolio in DNA/RNA analysis with 454 and NimbleGen, the ACEA technology will be an essential cornerstone to strengthen and further extend our product portfolio in cell analysis. We are convinced that ACEA´s platform products for cell based assays will form a new industrial standard for life science cell-analysis,” commented Manfred Baier, Head of Roche Applied Science.

“We are pleased to strategically partner with Roche, one of the premier companies in the life science industry, in the development of this exciting new business – label-free, real time cell-based assays,” said Dr. James O’Connell, ACEA Bioscience’s CEO. “Cell-based assay is a rapidly growing field with many applications in pharmaceutical research, life science research, and a large number of other rapidly growing areas.” Dr. O’Connell continued: “Our microplate-based biosensor platform will provide users with many advantages simply not possible with current technology, and will greatly improve their laboratory productivity. We look forward to working with Roche in this important new area.”

ACEA Bioscience’s design of electronic sensor, innovative methods for data acquisition and analysis, and optimized instrumentation design provide a unique platform for cell based assays with the potential to become a benchmark item for cell biology and molecular biology labs. The major advantages of the ACEA RT-CES and RT-CIM technology over conventional approaches include:

• Label-free system
• Real-time kinetics
• Live cell quality control
• High information content
• Good sensitivity and reproducibility in monitoring an entire cell population in a culture well

ACEA`s technology integrates microelectronics with cell and molecular biology. The core of the system is a microelectronic biosensor array incorporated into each well of standard sized 16 and 96 well microplates. This permits the RT-CES^® System to measure the activity of living cells in real time without any labels or reporters. Any number of cellular parameters such as attachment, spreading, growth, death, and even specific morphological changes can be simply and reliably detected.