Singapore: Human Metabolome Technologies, a Japanese company that deals in capillary electrophoresis mass spectrometry (CE-MS) based metabolomics technology, is opening its first US office in Cambridge, MA.

The new office will allow the company better accessibility to globally competitive pharmaceutical companies and research institutions and help extend Human Metabolome Technologies' most important metabolome analysis services, Carcinoscope, which was specifically designed for cancer research, and Basic Scan for more global, general-purpose metabolomics research, including biomarker discovery and companion diagnostics, to these companies.

"Cambridge provides the perfect combination of academic and industrial arenas, especially associated with the field of life science, food engineering, and environmental studies," said Mr Tsutomu Hoshiba, president, Human Metabolome Technologies America. "Human Metabolome Technologies provides cutting-edge solutions to life scientists, medical doctors, and pharmacologists via our state-of-the-art metabolomics technology based on capillary electrophoresis mass spectrometry (CE-MS), and we believe that Cambridge is the place to be for networking with businesses who will make the most of our solutions."

Human Metabolome Technologies' primary business aims to provide complete solutions for metabolomics research in biomarker discovery, drug design, diagnostic technology, and food production. It was founded in July 2003 by Prof Masaru Tomita, director of the Institute for Advanced Biosciences (IAB), Keio University, Japan, and Prof Tomoyoshi Soga from the same institute. The company has been awarded government funding from the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization. Human Metabolome Technologies has also established a number of partnerships, including Agilent Technologies, Mizkan Group, Ajinomoto, and Mitsubishi Pharma in Japan.