Thirteen scientists at
Micromyx are providing the research and development big pharma and little pharma need as they explore new antibiotics.
The team of scientists worked with 40 different companies in 2010 and business is doing just as well this year. CEO Dean Shinabarger says the company is on track for a growth in revenues of 10 to 15 percent in 2011.
Seven years ago, the Kalamazoo-based microbiology services business started out with four scientists working in about 1,500 square feet in the Southwest Michigan Innovation Center. As the company has gradually grown over the years it now works in about 4,000 square feet.
The current staff size is "comfortable," Shinabarger says. It's large enough to work on big projects and still keep up with the day-to-day work that comes in.
Micromyx got its start from the early demise of a similar company. Shinabarger and other microbiologists from Pharmacia went to work for a company that closed its doors in six months. Shinabarger and Gary Zurenko (now chief science officer for Micromyx) decided they wanted to continue to do good science, liked working in the Innovation Center and wanted to try to make a go of it on their own. They purchased the assets of the company that went under, hired two more scientists, and Micromyx was on its way.
Today the company does contract research and works with each client to determine their specific needs. Their
lineup of services includes spectrum/potency assessments, minimal Bactericidal Concentration (MBC) assay and time-kill kinetic assays just to name a few.
The staff is made up entirely of scientists. "That's one of our keys to success. When you call you are going to get me or Gary on the phone," Shinabarger says.
He also credits much of the company's success to services provided through the economic development organization Southwest Michigan First, the Michigan Small Business and Tech Development Center and
WMU's Biosciences Research and Commericialization Center -- an effort that came together in 2003 to keep displaced Pfizer scientists in Kalamazoo by funding new life sciences businesses. Microymyx was one of the beneficiaries of that program.
Writer: Kathy Jennings
Source: Dean Shinabarger, Micromyx
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