LGC acquires Douglas Scientific to expand its high-throughput PCR platform offering

LGC, the international life sciences and measurement company, announces that it has acquired a majority stake in Douglas Scientific, a leading laboratory automation company based in Alexandria, MN. Douglas Scientific was previously owned by Kingdom Enterprises.

Douglas Scientific provides high throughput PCR and qPCR platforms and the proprietary Array Tape® consumables to a variety of applied end markets, including agbio and clinical research laboratories.

This acquisition enables LGC to offer customers an enhanced range of high throughput genotyping and qPCR instrumentation together with proprietary DNA extraction solutions, PCR assays and reagents and associated consumables.

Giulio Cerroni, Managing Director, LGC, Genomics division, said: “We are delighted to be adding Douglas Scientific products to our portfolio of offerings. Douglas Scientific is a leader in its market and has developed automation solutions and consumables which have become very well established in a relatively short period of time.

“Customers will benefit from the unique synergies between our two organisations, including: combined workflow solutions for extraction, genotyping and gene expression with optimised application protocols utilising LGC proprietary KASP® and Klearkall™ PCR mastermix reagents together with our Biosearch BHQ® and BHQplus® probes. The combined organisations will provide customers in all regions with access to the SNPline™, Nexar® and IntelliQube® platforms, benefiting from LGC’s international footprint. We are excited about the new product development possibilities to provide our customers with new workflow solutions.”

Dan Malmstrom, President and COO, Douglas Scientific, said: “Since its incorporation in 2009, Douglas Scientific has provided clients with innovative high throughput genotyping instruments and consumables in applied market sectors. We are looking forward to joining the LGC team, expanding into new markets and developing new offerings that will leverage our strong engineering capabilities and LGC’s proven chemistries.”

Vern Anderson, CEO of Kingdom Enterprises, said: “We are excited about this new chapter for Douglas Scientific as they join LGC to make the world a safer and better place. The synergies between the two companies are uniquely strong. Their combined strengths will offer them a great future and an opportunity to grow the business right here in Alexandria.”

Douglas Scientific’s portfolio of instruments and consumables includes:
•    Nexar, a leading ultra-high throughput platform for endpoint genotyping used by the majority of the world’s largest seed organisations as well as customers in other applied markets such as livestock breeders, food testing and veterinary diagnostics.
•    IntelliQube, the first fully automated mid to high throughput instrument for both endpoint and quantitative PCR.
•    Array Tape, an established and proven consumable technology for high throughput automated genotyping and qPCR on both the Nexar and IntelliQube platforms.