|
 |
|
|
|
|
The origins of Madison’s technology industry can be traced back much farther than 1982, but Fred Blattner felt pretty isolated when he opened DNASTAR, Inc. that year.
Other than another young company - an upstart called Promega - and a few more, the producer of DNA analysis software was in need of companionship. The early 1980s was an era where it was considered bad form - even a social stigma - for an academician like Blattner to start a business. The dominant perception was that research and development was a “big company†function.
“We were among the first five or 10 [technology] companies getting off the ground at that time,†said Blattner, a genetics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and CEO of DNASTAR. “We were pretty lonely.â€
Amid the solitude, Blattner wanted to take advantage of the expanding knowledge of DNA. He launched DNASTAR in his basement with the help of an SBIR grant and then UW-Madison undergrad John Schroeder, now the company’s vice president of R&D.
Blattner was among the first professors on the UW campus to conduct DNA sequencing. Even nationally, he was part of a small universe, but since it was impossible for anyone to scan volumes of genomic data with the naked eye, there was strong demand for analysis software.
Unfortunately for DNASTAR, the weak link in the sales process was the fact that Apple was still largely a gleam in someone’s eye. Since it was developing software before there were computers that could run it, the company had to build the computers and sell the software and computer in a bundle, but that didn’t stop Blattner from mowing a different landscape. Little by little, the personal computer would begin to proliferate in research labs and businesses, and he would be joined by other university professors who discovered a market for their research tools.
And now, with a revolution underway in structural biology and its 25th anniversary approaching, DNASTAR still offers DNA sequencing, which permits a more in-depth analysis of genes, and has moved into database searching and micro arrays.
“They were one of the early leaders in bioinformatics and in assisting researchers with tools,” said Jim Leonhart, executive vice president of the Wisconsin Biotechnology and Medical Device Association. “They are now quite a major player around the world.”
