Based in Vermont, BioTek Instruments has over 400 employees. Its instrumentation is found in over 125,000 labs. Thirty percent of employees are located outside the US, and the company has 11 subsidiaries worldwide and 70 distributors. BioTek’s development in many ways mirrors the development of the drug discovery instrumentation market, from the heyday of big pharma drug discovery to the new era of cell-based assays and outsourced research. In doing so, the company has been able to capitalize on the changes in market and instrument requirements.

Founded in 1967, BioTek introduced its first microplate reader for the life sciences research market in 1981, becoming a well-known supplier for one of the fastest growing segments of the life sciences instrument market at the time. Previously, the company had participated solely in the biomedical instrument market.

Today, BioTek’s product line encompasses microplate readers, washers and dispensers, associated robotics and software and, most recently, cell imaging systems. Earlier this year, BioTek introduced the LionHart FX Automated Live Cell Imager, its first live-cell imaging system, building upon the success of its Cytation Cell Imaging Multi-Mode Readers, launched in 2013.

One of BioTek’s most successful products, the Cytation signifies what the company has always emphasized, according to Gary Barush, Global director, Marketing & Sales, at BioTek. “What we really focus on, and what we have been focused on since our inception, is multifunctional flexibility in our instrumentation. You can use our products for many different assay types at an outstanding value,” he explained. The Cytation microplate reader incorporates fluorescence, brightfield, phase contrast and color brightfield imaging modes, as well as the option for additional detection formats. According to Mr. Barush, “With Cytation’s combination of multimode detection and imaging, researchers can screen the entire plate, measuring fluorescence, for example; then our Gen5 software will determine which of the wells had a reaction above a certain threshold, and then only image those wells—let’s say, 10 or 12 wells out of a 384-well plate—by combining the two technologies.”

The efficiency such flexibility offers is in demand as pharmaceutical companies outsource more research to third parties. “This, for us, presented a great opportunity. Rather than having fewer places to sell products, there are many more now,” explained Mr. Barush. “But the most important benefit for a contract research organization, academic screening lab or independent laboratory where assay

workflows will change from contract to contract, is absolute flexibility. [W]e provide this performance and flexibility at a reasonable price compared to other products that are sold into the high-end pharmaceutical business.” Cytation systems range in price from $40,000 to $100,000.

In addition to greater outsourcing, another pharmaceutical industry trend on which BioTek capitalized is cell-based assays and imaging. The company aims to make such technology more accessible. “Where, in the past, these imaging systems were only available in core facilities at a large pharmaceutical company or a high-throughput screening lab at an academic facility . . . we targeted Cytation 3/5 to be affordable for any research laboratory,” explained Mr. Barush. “Additionally, our focus was researchers familiar with the operation of microplate readers, making the protocols and software for imaging more intuitive to their current experience.”

Cytation expanded upon BioTek’s experience with cell-based assays used on its microplate reader instruments but also was the company’s entry into the imaging market. “We felt it was really a natural progression for us, to move from biochemical to cell-based assays,” said Mr. Barush. “What [researchers] really wanted was imaging technology to do applications, such as cell population analysis and nuclear translocation—find out actually where the signal is coming from, in what cells, in what part of the cells, in what compartment of the cell the signal was being expressed.”

To expand into the cell imaging market, the company hired scientific and marketing expertise, including a new scientific director and outside consultants. But, as Mr. Barush explained, market acceptance was a key challenge. “We determined that our biggest challenge entering the research imaging and microscopy market was the acceptance of BioTek as an imaging instrument supplier.” He added, “We knew we had to get it right the first time.”

To enter the market, the company focused on users who already knew BioTek. “We decided we would first approach imaging and microscopy through those customers that we were familiar with; that is, our current customers in the multimode reader market. We wanted to provide a tool that would extend the capabilities of a multimode reader,” said Mr. Barush. “So, strategically, multimode reader customers were the first market we addressed: people we already knew and where we could gain immediate acceptance and credibility.”

The company’s presence in other microplate-related markets as a provider of microplate washer and dispensers proved to be another avenue to customers. “Secondly, we were looking at the high-content screening market, where people were familiar with our microplate readers, washers, dispensers and automation products. [T]he third and biggest market that we are tackling is the microscopy market.”

Cytation’s success validated the strategy. “I think frankly we surprised a lot of people: how quickly we came out with these types of products and the success we’ve had with them.”