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Image Analysis Systems
Winner: Bio-Rad Laboratories
"Our goal is making products easy to use and not to make it overly complicated for the customers," says Charles Martin, marketing manager for Bio-Rad's imaging systems and software. The company is strong in the electrophoresis and blotting markets, he says. For its higher-end systems such as the PharosFX, "you don't have to worry about what stain or label you're using," says Martin. "You can choose your application, and the system chooses all your instrument settings for you." Bio-Rad has built twenty years of name recognition and a sales force that offers guidance based on customers' needs, says Martin. The sales representatives "come into the lab and sell not just an instrument but a suite of products."
James Smyth, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, uses Bio-Rad's VersaDoc MP 4000 image analysis system for DNA gel imaging and Western blotting analysis. "We can do multiplexed Western blotting," says Smyth. "That's the main power of the machine." After comparing the Bio-Rad system to those of other companies, Smyth says Bio-Rad's is the most satisfactory, with ideal sensitivity levels and integration of features.
Runners-Up: Kodak Molecular Imaging Systems, Molecular Devices


Instrumentation for Protein Analysis
Winner: Bio-Rad Laboratories
"Bio-Rad is a leader in protein analysis, by providing accessible solutions that enable our customers to answer complex biological questions," writes Shannon Hall, division marketing manager for Bio-Rad's laboratory separations division, in an e-mail. She cites several examples: the ProteOn XPR36, for protein-protein interaction analysis; the Bio-Plex Suspension Array System, for multiplex protein quantitation; the ProteinChip SELDI system, for protein profiling; and the new Profinia protein purification system. They're "all designed to deliver high performance with exceptionally easy-to-use interfaces," she says. The ProteOn XPR36 design, says Cathy Mainini, senior product manager of Bio-Rad's protein function division, "opens up protein structure studies to the entire workflow" with its 6x6 array design and "one-shot kinetics, which allows a complete kinetic analysis of an interaction pair on one chip in one experiment in about an hour and 30 minutes."
Patricio Meneses, an assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at the Rosalind Franklin University in Chicago, has been using Bio-Rad protein analysis products for more than 15 years. "We use Bio-Rad for running gels and transferring gels," he says. "I think the ProteOn apparatus is very consistent. It doesn't leak, and it provides reproducible results." Likewise, he says "the transfer products are very reliable."
Runners-Up: Applied Biosystems, GE Healthcare

Protein Separation Products
Winner: Bio-Rad Laboratories
"Our position is to take core technologies and make them more amenable through ease of use, friendlier design, and more robust design," Shannon Hall, marketing manager for Bio-Rad's laboratory separations division, writes in an e-mail. The key to the company's success is its development of close relationships with researchers, she says. "These relationships provide insight into customer needs that enable Bio-Rad to offer solutions that extend beyond products and include strategies to enhance experimental design and success," Hall writes. "We believe we can provide additional value, over and above product sales."
Priya S. Chockalingam, a senior research scientist at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, uses Bio-Rad's ChemiDoc XRS System. She says this newer model has all the features she and other researchers need. "This one can do chemiluminescence for Western blot," she says, with additional features such as the ability to image fluorescent and colorimetric samples. She adds, "We use it to visualize protein suppression and also for gel separation." Chockalingam also likes the variety of standard protein markers Bio-Rad provides.
Runners-Up: GE Healthcare, Invitrogen