nAscent BioSciences introduces PocketTipsä, the first disposable pipette tips capable of delivering nanoliter amounts of molecular compound for drug discovery assays, yet compatible with existing liquid handling equipment. The company was founded in April of this year and hired the key technical team from Boston Innovation, a microfluidics company serving the drug discovery industry since 1998. In July 2004, the company closed on a private placement investment in support of the product introduction. This month the company delivered the first PocketTipsä in the U200 universal format, dispensing 100 nanoliters of compound, to drug discovery companies including Amgen, Astra Zeneca, Aventis, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, and Wyeth. By October, the company will introduce two new versions for the BioMek FX liquid handler manufactured by Beckman Coulter, both the 96- and 384-channel models.
