Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) and Baylor College of Medicine, both known for their expertise in metabolomics, are working together to advance research and training in this vital branch of the life sciences.

To that end, Agilent and Baylor have opened the Agilent Technologies Mass Spectrometry Center of Excellence as part of the Alkek Center for Molecular Discovery and the Baylor College of Medicine Core Laboratory in the college’s department of molecular and cellular biology.

“Our collaborative relationship with Baylor and our shared investment in this new center will foster development of advanced research tools and new applications in metabolomics and integrated biology,” said Carl Raimond, Agilent vice president of Sales and Field Operations, Americas Life Sciences. Dr. Bert O’Malley, director of the Alkek Center for Molecular Discovery at Baylor, said, “This decision by Agilent will be a major addition to the Alkek Center in the area of metabolomics and will greatly aid our metabolic R&D and service capabilities for the Texas Medical Center.”

“The growing significance of metabolomics, not only in life science research but in many application spaces, has resulted in the need for more analytical capabilities,” said Dr. Arun Sreekumar, co-director of the Alkek Center. “Baylor and Agilent have identified several areas of mutual interest—metabolomics, lipidomics, clinical research, disease research—where we believe we can make real progress together.”

Agilent is equipping the new center with two systems configured for metabolomics: an Agilent 6495 triple quadrupole LC/MS system and an Agilent 6550 iFunnel quadrupole time-of-flight LC/MS system with a switchable GC APCI interface. The systems include Mass Hunter software for qualitative and quantitative analysis as well as Mass Profiler Professional with Pathway Architect for bioinformatics and integrated multi-omic analysis.

Baylor and Agilent will use the equipment collaboratively to analyze samples, conduct research and train students. Both parties have enjoyed a long-standing scientific relationship, which has resulted in several published application breakthroughs in cancer metabolomics.

About Baylor College of Medicine

Baylor College of Medicine (www.bcm.edu) in Houston is recognized as a premier academic health sciences center and is known for excellence in education, research and patient care. It is the only private medical school in the greater southwest and is ranked 21st among medical schools for research and 12th for primary care by U.S. News & World Report. Baylor is listed 19th among all U.S. medical schools for National Institutes of Health funding and number one in Texas. Located in the Texas Medical Center, Baylor has affiliations with seven teaching hospitals and jointly owns and operates CHI St. Luke’s Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center. Currently, Baylor trains more than 3,000 medical, graduate, nurse anesthesia, physician assistant and orthotics students, as well as residents and post-doctoral fellows. Follow Baylor College of Medicine on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/BaylorCollegeOfMedicine) and Twitter (http://twitter.com/BCMHouston).

About Agilent Technologies

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A), a global leader in life sciences, diagnostics and applied chemical markets, is the premier laboratory partner for a better world. Agilent works with customers in more than 100 countries, providing instruments, software, services and consumables for the entire laboratory workflow. Agilent generated revenues of $4.0 billion in fiscal 2014. The company employs about 12,000 people worldwide. Information about Agilent is available at www.agilent.com.

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