Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Cytopeia Acquired By Beckton Dickinson

Becton, Dickinson and Co. announced Tuesday that it has acquired Cytopeia, a Seattle-based bioengineering firm. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. BD said Cytopeia's flagship product, the Influx flow cytometry cell sorter, grants BD a configurable cell-sorting platform that researchers can optimize for their application-specific needs. Cytometry is the counting of blood cells, generally with the use of a cytometer. BD said Dr. Ger van den Engh, Cytopeia's president, founder and chief technical officer, will join BD's Biosciences group as vice president of advanced cytometry. In this role, he will manage research and technology development activities in Seattle. Cytopeia was the first commercial spin-off by the Institute for Systems Biology, a non-profit research facility.