Roche Rocks? With Impedance!

There are times when a picture--or a video--is worth a thousand words and simultaneously leaves you speechless. This is one of those times. (email/RSS subscribers if you can't see the video, click here to view it.)

Call Roche's XCelligence rock video a piece of intelligent (marketing) design--we aren't completely sure what the rock band is trying to sell. Hair products? Leather? Tattoos? An '80s rock compilation? How about a pioneering "microelectronic biosensor system for cell-based assays providing dynamic, real-time, label-free cellular analysis for a variety of research applications in drug development, toxicology, cancer, medical microbiology, and virology"? Seriously, WTF?

Take a moment and savor the Def Leppard/Poison/Guns N Roses/Van Halen mash-up that harkens back to a different time, when real men wore headbands and codpieces.

It's tempting to speculate that this video and a companion ballad piece (because all great Heavy Metal bands have a sensitive side too--see the ballad below) are the true reason behind Art Levinson's departure from Genentech. He doesn't have the locks--or the ink or the tongue (?)--to be the David Lee Roth/Gene Simmons wannabee.

Or maybe it just proves what Genentech lovers have said all along: Roche clearly could afford to spend more than $95-a-share on the iconic biotech. At the very least we hope the videos make you smile.

Bio-rad? Your move.