LIFE

Life Technologies Corporation

A maker of lab tools for biology research, Life Technologies supplied the instruments, reagents, and supplies scientists use to study DNA, cells, and proteins. Its products included DNA sequencers, PCR machines, and the Gibco brand of cell culture media, used by academic labs, hospitals, and drug developers. The company was born in 2008 when two life-science pioneers, Invitrogen and Applied Biosystems, merged into one. A fun bit of history: its Applied Biosystems arm traces back to a collaboration with Caltech and its sequencers helped decode the human genome, a project one of its founders, Leroy Hood, helped pioneer. Thermo Fisher Scientific later folded it into its own operations.