Waters Corp. acquires rights to Indiana spectrometer tech

Photo | Courtesy Waters SYNAPT G2-Si High Definition Mass Spectrometer with DESI Source

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Milford scientific equipment manufacturer Waters Corp. has acquired the exclusive rights to an Indiana firm’s mass spectrometry technology.

The technology -- desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) -- comes from Indiana-based Prosolia and the Purdue Research Foundation, the latter of which is where DESI was invented.

According to Waters, the technology uses a charged jet of solvent-depositing droplets onto a sample’s surface where analytes are desorbed into a gas phase at ambient pressure and temperature.

Financial terms of the agreement were not released, but Waters said it will provide Purdue University with another mass spectrometer - the Synapt G2-Si - so the university can continue its research on applications of DESI technology.

Prosolia will continue to supply DESI technology for non-Waters customers or products until Sept. 30, 2019.

In a statement, Waters Chairman and CEO Chris O’Connell said the acquisition bolsters the company’s portfolio of biomedical research.

“DESI mass spectrometry imaging provides complementary and actionable data when compared to classical histopathology imaging technologies with major advantages in analyzing the molecular fingerprint within a sample, thus delivering deeper biological insights,” he said.