Computer Controlled Shock Wave Instrument for High-Throughput Sample Preparation

WOBURN, MA—February 2, 2000—Covaris, Inc. announces today its new instrument system for High-Throughput biology research.

The exCELLerator™ E1 system from Covaris standardizes cellular lysis and tissue disruption for automated sample preparation. For the first time, life scientists have a system that can reproducibly deliver mechanical energy to a sample. This is achieved through the precisely controlled generation and pinpoint delivery of shock waves. These shock waves can penetrate closed vessels; this provides sterile handling and enhanced safety for users.

The exCELLerator is designed for use with a variety of sample holders, including tubes and multi-well plates for High-Throughput applications. The system will process a multi-well plate of tissue samples in less than five minutes without operator assistance. With a wide range of user specified temperatures and no need to add lytic chemicals, this powerful acoustic disrupter is gentler to the target molecules, such as nucleic acids and proteins, that researchers need to extract than the current manual or chemical methods. A large variety of samples can be treated including bone, liver, and plant tissues as well as microbes.

The exCELLerator system is the leading edge of High-Throughput sample processing technology. It is designed for researchers who need the greatest precision in sample preparation in fields such as toxicology, functional genomics, target validation, and proteomics. The exCELLerator system is especially valuable for high volume, hard tissue sample preparation where preserving the integrity of extracted molecules is important. The system is currently available either as a stand-alone, bench-top apparatus or as a module for a robotics-based laboratory.

About Covaris:
Covaris, Inc. is a privately held company founded in 1999 to develop instrument systems based on its proprietary, patent-pending, biophysical technology platform. The technology is based on focused acoustic energy and applications of shock wave physics for advanced and high-throughput applications in biology and medicine.

Contact:
Covaris, Inc.
14 Gill Street, Unit H
Woburn, Massachusetts
USA 01801-1721
Tel: +1 781-932-3959
Fax: +1 781-932-8705
e-mail: [email protected]