Companies

HandyLab

5230 South State Road

Ann Arbor, MI 48108

734.633-4719

www.handylab.com

Ann Arbor-based HandyLab formed in the early months of 2000 from a spin off of an already established University of Michigan company. Their focus is developing, manufacturing and selling novel diagnostic products (miniature laboratory testing kits) based on the company's patented and proprietary microfluidic, miniaturized real time PCR, and nucleic acid extraction technologies.

Expecting to see their products purchased by 2,500 laboratories this year, and with plans to expand into the global market, this life sciences tech firm reached 40 employees in 2007, have plans to add another 10 this year and expect to reach 90 by 2012.

Mark Powelson, vice president of sales and marketing, says the jobs will be in a variety of capacities: sales and marketing, manufacturing and research and development.

The key to HandyLab's success has been their rapid response laboratory testing kits, allowing minimally-skilled personnel to perform tests and analysis on raw clinical specimens in 40-60 minutes --at least 50% faster the typical testing sytems.

This helps clinical personnel in seeing patients, running diagnostic tests and treating illnesses before they leave the medical facility. As a result of these benefits, HandyLab expects to capture significant share of the rapidly growing IVD molecular diagnostic market by targetting hospital and clinical reference laboratories.

Advanced Engineering, Biotechnology, Life Sciences

Ann Arbor

Stories:

Ann Arbor entrepreneurial community wins with $300M sale of HandyLab