Recently the Chennai based company, Scigenics Biotech was in New Delhi to promote their indigenous range of multi-deck shakers, developed with the help from department of biotechnology (DBT) through the Small Business Innovation Research Initiative (SBIRI) scheme. In an impressive yet simple inaugural function, the company celebrated the occasion to mark the delivery of the ORBITEK - MDS to the Department of Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology (DoBB) at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi on October 01, 2013. Apart from the management of the company, present on the occasion were Dr Kalaivani Ganesan, scientist, DBT and Prof A K Srivastava, DoBB, IIT, who has been a long time user of the Scigenics products.

The price of the instrument varies with the specific demands of the clients and these are customized according to the requirements in the laboratory. However, as per the company's management the price which is closer to Rs 20 lakhs is still much cost effective than the options offered by the competition. So far, the response has been remarkable and the company has received many orders already.The company is excited about the development and is looking forward to the success of this indigenous venture manufactured at its facility in Chennai.

According to Mr S.Gopal, managing director, Scigenics Biotech, "Our objective is to manufacture innovative and reliable products keeping in mind cost effectiveness. The flexibility brought into our products greatly helps our scientists to work on a range of experiments".

Among the few key features of the ORBITEK multi deck shaker are that it comes with easily removable movement assembly to maximize inner utility space for large capacity containers. Slide out universal pull-out platform with safety lock enables, ease to accessing culture flasks. There is also four-tier orbital shaker with temperature control (10 degree to 80 degree celsius) and isolated temperature control mode reduces the risk of contamination inside the chamber.

Expressing her views on SBIRI funding, Ms S.Neela, executive director, Scigenics Biotech, "The singular benefit of SBIRI has been to empower us to think "We can". The SBIRI constantly mentored us to realize our true potential. The fact that SBIRI was trusting us, itself unshackled us from myopic views of an SSI and opened our vision and there was simply no looking back."

Sharing his experiences, Prof A K Srivastava, mentioned, "There is no doubt that this shaker has added value to our research efforts. I have been always impressed with the way Scigenics promptly customizes the instruments as per our requirements. The flexibility offered by it has to be appreciated."

Having launched the first ORBITEK brand of shakers through way back in 1997, Scigenics has improved both its products over the period of time. In the year 1999, the company launched the shakers as a multiple range.Then in 2002, it added incubators and hybridization chambers and by 2004, it achived the remarkable figure of having manufactured 1000th shaker. Marking competing international standards, the company in 2008, went on to launch the table top refrigerated shakers. Now, in 2013, Scigenics has crossed the selling mark of 3000 for the shakers. Apart from the shakers, Scigenics has been dealing in Plant growth chambers and CO2 incubators in technical collaboration with Astec Japan.