About Us
History
Asuragen has its roots in Ambion®, “The RNA Company.” Ambion® is a molecular biology
reagent company with a strong focus on RNA. Asuragen is the successor entity to
Ambion. Ambion was formed in 1989 by Matt Winkler, then a University of Texas professor.
With a compounded annual revenue growth rate of 30%, Ambion quickly grew to become
the preeminent reagent company focused around RNA.
In 1996, Ambion started developing molecular diagnostic capabilities in preparation
for a future where it predicted that RNA-based molecular diagnostics would play
an increasingly important role in managing disease. Ambion developed Armored RNA®,
a technology for producing stable RNA standards for use in diagnostics. Armored
RNA® has been licensed to most of the large diagnostics companies and generates
over $1 million a year in licensing revenue. In 2000, Ambion Diagnostics became
a formal division of Ambion. Ambion Diagnostics put in place a cGMP manufacturing
facility and staffed the division with the appropriate development, manufacturing,
and regulatory employees.
In 2002, Ambion identified the emerging field of miRNAs as an important future research
area. Ambion produced research tools for miRNAs that were used by researchers throughout
the world. Ambion scientists used these cutting edge technologies to study miRNA
expression patterns in a variety of normal and disease samples. It became apparent
that miRNAs are both powerful diagnostic analytes and therapeutic entities, akin
to siRNAs, which are now being actively developed as therapeutics by companies such
as Sirna, Alnylam, ISIS, and others. In 2005, Matt Winkler, Ambion’s founder and
CEO, decided to sell Ambion’s research reagent business and focus his efforts on
a new company to pursue the substantial opportunities offered by future miRNA-based
therapeutics and diagnostics products.
On March 1, 2006, Ambion completed the sale of its Research Products division to
Applied Biosystems Group (NYSE: ABI), an Applera Corporation business, resulting
in the simultaneous spin-off and creation of Asuragen, Inc.. A number of Ambion’s
senior managers combined Ambion’s Diagnostic and Service divisions, along with about
15 members of the Research Product division’s researchers to form Asuragen, a new
company with about 125 employees. The new company is leveraging its RNA and miRNA
expertise into molecular diagnostics, pharmacogenomic services, and therapeutics.
