Life Technologies

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Life Technologies
Type Public
Traded as NASDAQ: LIFE
S&P 500 Component
Industry Life Science/Biotechnology
Founded 2008
Headquarters Carlsbad, California, U.S.
Key people

Greg Lucier,Chairman & CEO
Mark Stevenson,President & COO
Ron Andrews, President, Medical Sciences
David F. Hoffmeister,CFO
Paul Grossman, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development
John Cottingham, Chief Legal Officer
David Ruggerio, President, Commercial Operations
Joe Beery, CIO
Carol Cox, Senior Vice President, External Affairs & Corporate Communications
Susan Crawford, Vice President, Business Transformation
Peter Leddy, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Global Human Resources

Jonathan M. Rothberg, Ph.D., Founder & CEO, Ion Torrent
Revenue $3.8 Billion (2012)
Employees Approx. 10,000
Website www.lifetechnologies.com

Life Technologies is a global biotechnology company that is committed to providing the most innovative products and services to leading customers in the fields of scientific research, genetic analysis and applied sciences. With a presence in more than 180 countries, the company's portfolio of 50,000 end-to-end solutions are secured by more than 5,000 patents and licenses that span the entire biological spectrum -- scientific exploration, molecular diagnostics, 21st century forensics, regenerative medicine and agricultural research.

Contents

Brands [edit]

Applied Biosystems provides equipment for researchers in genotyping and genetic analysis, forensic DNA, food testing and animal health, pharmaceutical purification and analytics, PCR, flu virus research, stem cell research, and laser capture microdissection.[1]

Ambion is the primary brand within Life Technologies for work involving RNA. It includes products for isolation, detection, quantification, amplification, and characterization. Ambion also provides specific kits for different types of RNA research based on the sample type (bacteria, tissue, cell, yeast, blood etc.) and type of results desired.[2]

Gibco provides materials for research and biologic drug production, including cell culture products, reagents, cell culture bags, and growth factors.[3]

Invitrogen provides products and services for work involving DNA and biology. They offer more than 25,000 products and services that support research in fields such as genomics, drug discovery, proteomics, and cellular analysis.[4]

Molecular Probes[5] provides fluorescent labeling and detection. It is used by cell biology labs, nanotechnology research labs, and antibody production facilities.[6]

Novex provides protein reagents and consumables for the purification, separation, quantitation, and analysis of proteins, including SDS-PAGE gels, stains, standards, antibody technologies, and Western blotting products.[7]

Ion Torrent is the first commercial ion semiconductor DNA sequencing system. It uses proprietary semiconductor sensors to perform real-time measurement of the hydrogen ions produced during DNA replication. A high-density array of wells on the ion semiconductor chips provides millions of individual reactors while integrated fluidics allow reagents to flow over the sensor array. This combination of fluidics, micromachining, and semiconductor technology enables the direct translation of genetic information (DNA) to digital information (DNA sequence) that makes the Personal Genome Machine Sequencer.[8]

History [edit]

The original Life Technologies, Inc. (LTI), a subsidiary of Dexter Corp., was founded in 1983 by the merger of Bethesda Research Laboratories, Inc. (BRL) and GIBCO Corp. (Grand Island Biological Company[9]). It was bought out by the smaller, cash-rich Invitrogen in 2000 that gradually discontinued the use of the name Life Technologies.

Life Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ: LIFE) was formed November 21, 2008, with the completion of the merger of Invitrogen Corporation (NASDAQ: IVGN) and Applied Biosystems Inc. (NYSE: AB)

Applied Biosystems [edit]

Applied Biosystems (formerly GeneCo) was founded in 1981 by Sam Eletr and Andre Marion as a biochemical and manufactured diagnostic research instrument manufacturer. In 1983, it was acquired by Perkin Elmer and kept private until 2000 when it was released as a publicly traded company. Its former parent became Applera. By 2002, Applied Biosystems had reached revenues of $1.6 billion and maintained a variety of products including the SOLiD System — a next-gen DNA sequencing platform.[10]

Invitrogen [edit]

Invitrogen was founded by Lyle Turner, Joe Fernandez and William MacConnell (who was later bought out) in September 1987. They focused on developing products for the niche within the molecular biology research market for kits, reagents and services. They advertised in scientific journals, catalogs and everywhere they thought scientists would scan. Within three months, they sold their first kit, The Librarian, for $3,200.[11]

In 1998, Invitrogen offered more than 2,000 products. Invitrogen’s initial public offering (IPO) was made in February 1999 and raised $48.1M.

Timeline of major acquisitions [edit]

  • 1999 — Invitrogen bought Research Genetics (Resgen) for $139.2 million in stocks. It extended Invitrogen into gene discovery. Their product lines included DNA microarrays and custom software for microarray data analysis, PCR primers, large scale genomic and cDNA libraries and custom made DNA. More significantly, ResGen provided Invitrogen with a collection of high-quality cloned human genes which could be used to express the native gene protein product for further characterization and/or possible drug discovery.[12]
  • 1999 — Invitrogen bought Novex, a supplier of pre-cast electrophoresis gels, was focused on protein separation and analysis. Their products allowed the transfer of proteins out of gels and onto the surface of membranes for efficient detection of antibodies.[13]
  • 2000 — Invitrogen bought Dexter Corporation, owner of the original Life Technologies.
  • 2000 — Invitrogen merged with Life Technologies, one of the longest standing companies in the industry and a world leader in molecular biology and cell culture supplies for the life science industry. Combined, the new company had a technology portfolio of over 200 issued and pending patents and over 300 licenses.[14]
  • 2000 — Invitrogen acquired Ethrog Biotechnologies a leader in gel electrophoresis based in Israel.[15]
  • 2003 — Invitrogen bought Molecular Probes Incorporated for $325 million. Molecular Probes was the world leader in fluorescence-based technologies used for labeling molecules in biological research and drug discovery.[14]
  • 2003 — Invitrogen acquired Panvera whose products and services were used for high-throughput drug screening.[16]
  • 2003 — Invitrogen acquired Genicon Sciences, a pioneer in applying nanotechnology to life sciences. Their platform technology, Resonance Light Scattering, uses gold and silver nanotechnology to detect nucleic acids, proteins and molecular activity. It had been used in various research applications, including protein microarray analysis and held many possibilities across drug discovery, development and production.
  • 2003 — Invitrogen acquired Sequitur Incorporated and added to their RNAi platform.
  • 2004 — Invitrogen bought BioReliance Corporation for $430 million which provided biological safety testing, toxicology, viral manufacturing and laboratory animal diagnostic services.[17] Invitrogen later divested BioReliance.[18]
  • 2005 — Invitrogen acquired Zymed.[19]
  • 2005 — Applied Biosystems acquired the Research Products Division of Ambion, Inc. for $273 million. Ambion's products were used for isolation, detection, quantification, amplification, and characterization of RNA samples.[20]
  • 2005 — Invitrogen bought Dynal for $381.6 million, through which they became the market leader in magnetic bead technology. Biomagnetic separation is widely used in support of diagnostic product development, drug discovery as well as research environments.[21]
  • 2005 — Invitrogen acquired Quantum Dot Corporation which produced biofunctional quantum dots - nanometer sized particles with the ability to label thousands of molecules at once and view them in action for hours.[22]
  • 2006 — Applied Biosystems acquires Agencourt Personal Genomics. Agencourt’s massively parallel fluorescence sequencing by stepwise ligation technology is a high throughput approach to DNA/RNA analysis, applicable to many genetic analysis applications, including de novo genome sequencing, medical sequencing, high throughput gene expression, and high throughput genotyping.
  • 2007 — Invitrogen acquired Cascade Biologics and their cell culture research business. Cascade focused on animal product-free cell culture media for human skin derived cells and were a leading provider of primary cells for modelling diseases and testing potential therapies. Their products are being used pre-clinically to support the future development of new cell therapies involving skin cells, including wound care, burn treatment, cosmetic applications, corneal replacement and oral cavity restoration.
  • 2008 — Invitrogen acquired CellzDirect, a provider of hepatocyte-based cell products and related services used in the testing of new drugs. Primary human hepatocytes are the most accepted model for predicting a compound's effects on enzymatic metabolism in the liver.[23]
  • 2008 — Invitrogen bought Applied Biosystems for $6.7 billion, and the two became Life Technologies. The new company sells chemicals and research tools under the Invitrogen brand and scientific instruments under the Applied Biosystems name.
  • 2009 — Life Technologies acquired BioTrove, Inc., that’s primary technology is the OpenArray(R) platform, a high throughput gene expression and genotyping analysis system based on a flexible array format that enables researchers to perform more than 3,000 PCR genotyping or qPCR gene expression assays at a time.[24]
  • 2010 — Life Technologies acquired Acrometrix, a provider of molecular and serological diagnostic quality control products to clinical laboratories, blood screening centers and in-vitro diagnostic (IVD) manufacturers.[25]
  • 2010 — Life Technologies acquired the synthetic biology firm GeneArt, which provides the ability to target and regulate expression within the genome.[26]
  • 2010 — Life Technologies acquired Stokes Bio Ltd. that developed microfluidic technology.
  • 2010 — Life Technologies acquired Ion Torrent that provides DNA sequencing by enabling a direct connection between chemical and digital information through the use of semiconductor technology.[28]
  • 2012 — Life Technologies acquired Compendia BioScience.
  • 2012 — Life Technologies acquired Pinpoint Genomics & CLIA-approved lung cancer test.
  • 2012 — Acquisition of Navagenics expanded Life Technologies' capabilities in diagnostics.

References [edit]

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  9. ^ http://tools.invitrogen.com/content/sfs/brochures/B-066802-Sera_Bro.pdf
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  27. ^ "Life Technologies Completes Investment in Synthetic Genomics, Inc.". 
  28. ^ "add title here". 
  29. ^ Bill Berkrot (15 April 2013). "Thermo Fisher to buy Life Tech for $13.6 billion". Reuters. Retrieved 17 April 2013. 

External links [edit]

United States Companies of the NASDAQ-100 index
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