Company highlight – we meet Epigentek!
At CiteAb we work hard to get to know individual antibody suppliers so that you can be sure the data we hold is always up to date and correct. Every now and then we feature individual company highlights here on our blog, allowing you to get to know leading antibody suppliers too.
This week we have been speaking to Epigentek, from Farmingdale on Long Island, New York. Epigentek was founded in early 2005 by Dr. Adam Li, who envisioned a company that would solely offer epigenetic research products, as he’d had difficulties in acquiring such tools during his previous tenure in the academic world.
Speaking to Matt here at CiteAb, Natalie Crowley, Technical Marketing Associate, said: “What started as a small company run out of a tiny office in the financial district of New York City quickly expanded into a biotech incubator building in Brooklyn. Being based in an overpriced city, the facility was made up of small, modular rooms inhabited by various biotech startups. As Epigentek grew, so did our neighbours.
“Everyone in the building was grabbing any available modules and before we knew it, our company was dispersed at opposite ends of the hallway, as well as on different floors with employees hastily running back and fore. Soon enough, Epigentek grew too big for the modular space and we eventually graduated into the Farmingdale complex we have today, where thankfully everyone is now conveniently together and the ‘gym’ membership is no longer mandatory!”
Epigentek now has 16 members of staff, working in a high tech environment. However, it wasn’t always that way. As Natalie told Matt, in the early days, before all of Epigentek’s fully computerised systems were in place, each of the company’s production and logistics personnel had a daily print-out list of pending outbound products to be prepared and shipped.
Natalie said: “Now this was on a single sheet of paper, and employees were shuffling around all the time, and sometimes when it got really busy they would forget to carry their order list along with them. It became such a common occurrence that not a single day would go by without hearing at least one person holler: “Where’s my order list!?” So over time, the statement “Where’s My Order List?” became a running joke in the company for a while. We even contemplated on making t-shirts with the saying at one point!”
Epigentek sets out to offer the most complete and systematic solutions for epigenetic research. It is the first company to specialize exclusively in products and services that relate to epigenetic studies and applications, and has commited to continue to focus its efforts in this area.
Natalie adds: “We have the most comprehensive selection of antibodies relating to studies of epigenetic mechanisms, so such researchers don’t need to waste time shopping around for them. Also, since we offer ChIP kits, as well as perform ChIP-PCR and sequencing services here in-house, we are able to test our antibodies for ChIP-grade status and don’t rely on third parties to do the ChIP validation.”
CiteAb now lists all of Epigentek’s antibodies. We are always looking for new companies and academics to share their antibody data with us, so if you have antibodies that are not listed on CiteAb do get in touch.
– Matt and the CiteAb team
