Advanced Instruments Introduces 2020-BIO Multi-Sample Osmometer

Advanced Instruments Introduces 2020-BIO Multi-Sample Osmometer as First True Automation-Friendly Osmometer for the Biopharmaceutical Industry

NORWOOD, Mass. April 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Advanced Instruments, Inc. today introduced the Advanced(R) 2020-BIO Multi-Sample Osmometer as the first true automation-friendly osmometer for the biopharmaceutical industry.

"The Advanced(R) 2020-BIO Multi-Sample Osmometer is specifically designed for -- and completely redefines -- automation capabilities for osmolality testing in the biopharmaceutical laboratory," said Kelly Peterson, Product Manager, Advanced Instruments (www.aicompanies.com). "The 2020-BIO system development is in response to emerging demand in the pharmaceutical industry to integrate osmolality testing within an automated platform environment."

"Based on an extension of the industry-proven Advanced 2020 Osmometer, the 2020-BIO includes a host of features which enable fast and simple integration of the system with liquid handling robotics and laboratory automation platforms," Peterson said.

The 2020-BIO has been successfully applied to automate osmolality testing in applications ranging from cell culture process development and optimization to biopharmaceutical manufacturing and process control - It can also be extended to pharmaceutical research and drug development applications including formulation development, product stability testing, and drug safety and metabolism testing.

Major features of the new 2020-BIO include:

• Freezing point technology -- The industry-preferred method for determining sample concentration
• Automation friendly system design allows easy access for liquid handling robotics
• Interoperability with a broad range of robotics and liquid handling equipment
• Flexible system configuration options provide continuous sampling capabilities for enhanced throughput
• Bidirectional data transfer utilizing the preferred OPC open connectivity protocol
• Remote system control via an industry-standard RS-232 interface for secure connectivity to a PC.
• Fast and simple integration -- the developer's kit includes a .DLL for osmometer controls, making automation development easy to achieve.
• Small 20 microliter sample sizes -- ideal for sample-limited applications or for sharing sample volume with other integrated systems.

"The bottom line is that the 2020-BIO is the only commercially available system that provides fast, accurate osmolality testing in an automation friendly package," Peterson said.

The Advanced(R) 2020-BIO Multi-Sample Osmometer from Advanced Instruments is available immediately for shipment in the United States and Canada. For more information, visit the Advanced Instruments website at www.aicompanies.com/2020-BIO, or call 1-800-225-4034 or 1-781-320-9000.

About Advanced Instruments, Inc.

Founded in 1955, Advanced Instruments, Inc. (www.aicompanies.com) is the world's largest supplier of freezing-point cryoscopes and osmometers used in dairy, clinical, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology laboratories. The company is also a leading supplier of analytical instruments for the food and industrial microbiology markets. Based in Norwood, Massachusetts, USA, the privately held company also produces Fiske(R) Associates brand diagnostic instruments and operates Spiral Biotech, Inc., D&F Control Systems, Inc., Mart Microbiology, and Delta Instruments as wholly-owned subsidiaries. A worldwide network of direct sales people and independent distributors supports Advanced Instruments' products.

Available Topic Expert(s): For information on the listed expert(s), click appropriate link.

Kelly D. Peterson

Don't Fence Me In: Researchers Devise Bio-Boundary for African Wild Dogs

NORTHERN TULI GAME RESERVE, Botswana—The African wild dogs are about 80 feet (25 meters) away as Craig Jackson slips out of his Land Rover with a softball-size wad of tinfoil. He unwraps the dank sand—reeking of ammonia and other unidentified compounds—and plunks it on the ground. The sand was collected hundreds of kilometers away on the Okavango River Delta where two pack leaders, Yollo and Chinaca, had left their scent-laced urine. Over the past year, Jackson, a biologist, and his colleagues working on the Northern Tuli Wild Dog Project, have shown that strategically placed urine—called Bio-Boundaries—can help restrict the movements of these notorious fence-breakers in order to keep the endangered canines on protected land. "The fact that we've been able to contain these dogs is amazing," Jackson says.

Speckled with splotches of brown, black and tan, wild dogs are Africa's most persecuted predators. Their evolutionary lineage split off from wolves about two million years ago, but like those dogs they hunt in packs typically ranging from eight to 14 animals, dominated by an alpha male and female. Compared with lions, which successfully kill just 20 percent of the animals they stalk, wild dogs have a hunting success rate ranging from 40 to 80 percent. That's not always a good thing for an animal that must coexist with humans and their livestock.

"They have a bad reputation," he says, "People see them as savage killers that will devour all their goats." So, it's a constant battle to keep locals from trapping, poisoning or shooting them to death. Jackson says humans are responsible for up to 60 percent of wild dog deaths. Indeed, a rumor floating around a pub in nearby Alldays, South Africa, suggests that a single farmer shot and killed seven dogs earlier this month.

The dogs are further threatened by rabies, parvo and canine distemper viruses, which frequently break out in domestic dog populations in rural areas and spread to wild dogs that encounter them. In 1991, for instance, anoutbreak of distemper in a Malsai village in Kenya coincided with the disappearance of wild dogs from the neighboring Masai Mara National Reserve.

Once ranging throughout sub-Saharan Africa, wild dogs hunt at least one impala or other large animal per day, and individual packs maintain territories 200 and 400 square miles (500 and 1,000 square kilometers). They can only thrive in regions with low densities of lions, which are known to attack their canine competitors. They are now absent from 25 of the 39 countries they once inhabited, and their last stronghold is the Okavango in northern Botswana where some 700 to 800 dogs remain—about 20 percent of their total population and the largest number in a single geographic region.

Apart from Kruger National Park, South Africa's own fenced reserves are too small to support viable wild dog populations. Conservationists actively manage these isolated dog packs by moving males from one reserve to another to facilitate genetic mixing, but some canine bachelors break free of fences to make the dangerous journey through a patchwork of game reserves, cattle farms and agricultural areas in their quest for new mates.

The purpose of the Northern Tuli Wild Dog Project is to create a genetic corridor between the healthy Okavango Delta and South Africa's fenced populations. With low lion numbers and large herds of impala, the Northern Tuli Game Reserve, a 280 square mile (720 square kilometer) chunk of land nestled between Zimbabwe and South Africa on the Limpopo and Shashe rivers is also the perfect plot of land to support its own pack. Packs have historically passed through its boundaries, but have never taken up residency here. Jackson and his partners want to convince them to stay without fencing them in.

In 1996 J. Weldon "Tico" McNutt, director of the Botswana Predator Conservation Trust noticed that it took a pack of dogs six months to move into a territory in Okavango that was left empty after four packs there were wiped out by rabies. He speculated that long-lasting chemicals in their urine and feces discouraged the dogs from entering those former territories, but never had the opportunity to the put his theory to practice. After all, it would not make sense to disrupt the behavior of healthy dog populations, and smaller populations were all kept within fences.

Finally, in April 2008, after 18 dogs were moved by conservationists to Tuli from Marakele National Park in South Africa, McNutt had his chance and Jackson was tasked with maintaining the bio-boundary and monitoring the animals' movements with GPS-equipped dog collars. The researchers have flown more than 500 scent marks to Tuli over the last year, and the dogs appear to be staying within the bounds of the fenceless reserve.

Last June, after the dogs set up a den to give birth on the southern perimeter of the reserve, Jackson reinforced the boundary with five scent markers; three days later, the pooches had moved 18.5 miles (30 kilometers) to a more centrally located area, where they gave birth to their first litters.

In the fall McNutt's group opened a wild dog chemical ecology lab in Maun, Botswana, with $500,000 in funding from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, a major supporter of the project. The hope is that the team can identify and later synthesize the dog scent, which would be far more practical than collecting it in the field. One day, they may be able to use the method for other large predators and territorial species like the endangered black rhino.

As the sun sets at Tuli, Jackson watches the year-old pups romp at a water hole as the older dogs laze away in the grass. It's a full moon tonight and Jackson says they're saving their energy for a long trek—hopefully, one that stays within this safe haven.