HANNOVER, Germany, April 20 -- BioVisioN GmbH & Co. KG, the German biotechnology company, announced that it has formed a long-term, strategic collaboration with the Applied Biosystems Group, an Applera Corp. business. The two companies will collaborate on the joint development of tools, techniques and applications for the growing proteomics market. BioVisioN and Applied Biosystems will also establish a European reference laboratory for proteomics and peptidomics technologies at BioVisioN headquarters. Peptidomics technology, pioneered at BioVisioN, is the application of human peptide research for diagnosis and treatment of human disease. The partnership will combine BioVisioN's protein and peptide analysis technology with Applied Biosystems' life science research tools in biochromatography, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry and informatics to create integrated systems solutions for protein research. These systems are expected to improve precision and throughput for discovering relevant proteins and peptides for the future development of drugs and diagnostic tests in the pharmaceutical industry. "Our collaboration with Applied Biosystems can lead to the next great step in the post-genome era," said BioVisioN CEO Peter Schulz-Knappe. "The integrated technologies of BioVisioN and Applied Biosystems are expected to accelerate the discovery of disease-related gene products and the future development of new drugs and diagnostics."