At the Nanosphere booth I chatted with Mike McGarrity. The company develops nanotech-based molecular diagnostics tests for genetic detection and ultra-sensitive protein detection, and they're applying technology in a several ways: nucleic acid detection for genetics, pharmacogenetics, and infectious disease applications. Their Verigene system is a cartridge-based assay that doesn't require PCR amplification up front; the first tests were cleared in 2007-for warfarin metabolism and hyper coagulation. The company is developing CF, HFE, and respiratory...ultra-sensitive protein detection, which would detect CTN I levels well below the current sensitivity. McGarrity sees the industry trending toward decentralization from the central lab to hospital-based labs.

The Siemens booth was staffed by a sizeable team, primed to talk about their lines. New offerings include the Dimension EXL with LOCI module, targteted to mid- to moderate-sized labs, which runs chemistry and immunoassay on one instrument. The system was displayed among a plethora of products from Siemens, whose 11,000-square-foot booth-roughly the size of five houses-occupied the most real estate the the hall. For the first time products from three legacy companies-Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics, Dade Behring, and DPC-were showcased together. In that vein, the company is offering increased connectivity with the instruments-and has no immediate plans to phase any of them out.  The company says an emerging trend in health care is integrated diagnostics-the convergence of in vitro, in vivo, and health care IT.

In the afternoon, I met with company reps from bioMerieux, who launched the PREVI ISOLA plate streaker in June, which handles 300 plates an hour; Instrumentation Lab, celebrating their 50th year in business - stop by the booth and see their timeline of discoveries; and Waters, who introduced a new kit this year, the MassTrak Tacrolimus kit, for iTDM of the mmunosuppressant drug.