Becton, Dickinson buys cell analysis company Atto Bioscience.

San Jose, CA 7/1/04--BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) has acquired Atto Bioscience, which makes instrumentation, software and reagents for real-time analysis of interactions in living cells, for approximately $25 million in cash. Based in Rockville, Maryland, Atto Bioscience recorded 2003 sales of $3 million and expects its sales to double this year. BD Biosciences President Vincent A. Forlenza said, "This transaction will unite Atto Bioscience's high content imaging platforms with BD Biosciences' leading flow cytometry platforms and wide range of cell-based assay tools, positioning BD to play a leading role in the emerging high content cell analysis market." BD also cited Atto's strengths in biosensor development, cell biology and imaging as key to providing products for high content cell analysis.

Like Beckman Coulter, which bought Q3DM last year (see IBO 12/15/03), BD must add the latest techniques for cell analysis, in order to build upon its cell-analysis business, which is anchored by its flow cytometry line. Atto's products include: the Pathway HT confocal, single-cell imaging system for kinetic and endpoint assay formats; the ACT:ONE scalable cAMP (Cyclic adenosine monophosphate) biosensor for high-throughput screening of GPCRs; and the CARV confocal adaptor for conversion of epifluorescence microscopes to confocal imaging systems.