PerkinElmer Inc. of Wellesley, Mass., and George Mason University of Fairfax, Va., have announced a five-year research collaboration to develop approaches for cancer detection and risk stratification. Scientists plan to design clinical assay platforms that use amino acid identification of a protein fragment and its specific mass to identify biomarkers. The research will use the company’s BioXpression platform and the university’s discovery of an archive of protein fragments in human blood.

In other news, PerkinElmer has acquired Agilix Corp.’s protein labeling technology. The labels use isobaric mass tags to quantify expressed proteins from multiple samples. The company intends to use the technology to increase the reach of quantitative proteomics to drug discovery customers.