Life Technologies is a global biotechnology company headquartered in Carlsbad, California

Carlsbad, California

-2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Carlsbad had a population of 105,328. The population density was 2,693.1 people per square mile . The racial makeup of Carlsbad was 87,205 White, 1,379 African American, 514 Native American, 7,460 Asian, 198 Pacific Islander, 4,189 from other...

. It possesses a portfolio of more than 9 million genetic research assays and custom solutions. , the company had sales of $3.6 billion, employed a workforce of approximately 11,000, maintained a portfolio of nearly 4,000 patents and exclusive licenses, and markets over 50,000 products.

Brands

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

TaqMan provides research use products for gene expression, miRNA, protein analysis, copy number variation, and SNP genotyping analysis.

Ion Torrent is the first commercial ion semiconductor DNA sequencing

Ion semiconductor sequencing

Ion Semiconductor Sequencing is a method of DNA sequencing based on the detection of hydrogen ions that are released during the polymerization of DNA...

 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.

Awards and recognition

• MIT Technology Review - 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World
• The Scientist Top Ten Innovations of 2010
• Time Magazine Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs of 2008
• 2011 - MIT Technology Review - Top 50 Most Innovative Companies
• 2010 - The Scientist Magazine - Top 10 Innovations of 2010
• 2010 - Corporate Responsibility Magazine - 100 Best Corporate Citizens
• 2009 - Bloomberg-Maplecroft Climate Innovation Index (CII) Leaders of 2009
• 2009 - Newsweek Magazine - Life Technologies listed among America's 500 largest green corporations
• 2009 - Frost & Sullivan Drug Discovery Technologies Company of the Year
• 2009 - Frost & Sullivan Drug Discovery Technologies CEO of the Year
• 2009 - BBBOnLine Accreditation
• 2008 - TIME Magazine - SPOT-Light HER2 CISH Kit named in Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs
• 2008 - The Scientist - SOLiD Named Top Innovation of 2008
• 2008 - Connect - Most Innovative Product Finalist, StemPro BG01v platform cell engineering kit
• 2008 - San Diego Urban League, Urban Legacy Award for Environmentalism and Sustainability
• 2008 - APEX Award of Excellence, Print Publications, 32+ pages - Invitrogen's Quest (Vol. 4, Issue 2)
• 2008 - APEX Award of Excellence, Design & Layout - BioProbes 55 Magazine
• 2008 - Life Science Industry Awards - Cell Biology Kits and Reagents
• 2008 - Life Science Industry Awards - Cell Culture Media and Reagents
• 2008 - Life Science Industry Awards - Most Responsive Customer Service
• 2008 - Life Science Industry Awards - Most Knowledgeable Technical Support
• 2008 - Life Science Industry Awards - Most Useful Website

Environmental initiatives

Life Technologies emphasizes a strong green culture in a large variety of its corporate functions: in 2009 it was named both to the Bloomberg-Maplecroft Climate Innovation Index (CII) Leaders and Newsweek Magazine’s America's 500 largest green corporations.

History

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. it was bought out by the smaller, cash-rich Invitrogen

Invitrogen

Invitrogen Corporation was a large, multinational biotechnology company headquartered in Carlsbad, California. In November 2008, a merger between Applied Biosystems and Invitrogen was finalized...

in 2000 who 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

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 until 2000 when it was released as a publicly traded company and 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.

Invitrogen

Lyle Turner, Joe Fernandez and William MacConnell (who was later bought out) founded Invitrogen 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.

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

• 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.

• 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.

• 2000 - Invitrogen bought Dexter Corporation, owner of the original Life Tehcnologies.

• 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.

• 2000 - Invitrogen acquired Ethrog Biotechnologies a leader in gel electrophoresis based in Israel.

• 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.

• 2003 – Invitrogen acquired Panvera whose products and services were used for high-throughput drug screening.

• 2003 – Invitrogen acquires 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. Invitrogen later divested BioReliance.

• 2005 – Invitrogen acquired Zymed.

• 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.

• 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.

• 2005 – Invitrogen acquired Q-dots which are nanometer sized particles with the ability to label thousands of molecules at once and view them in action for hours.

• 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.

• 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, Incorporated, who’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.

• 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.

• 2010 – Life Technologies acquired the synthetic biology firm GeneArt, which provides the ability to target and regulate expression within the genome.

• 2010 – Life Technologies acquired Stokes Bio Ltd., that developed microfluidic technology.

• 2010 – Life Technologies invested in Synthetic Genomics

• 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.

External links

• Wall Street Journal profile