Integrated DNA Technologies saving steps for researchers

Researchers in the genetics field may speak a different language than the rest of us.

Industry supplier Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT) of Coralville has found a few things we all share in common, however, and it's become a potent formula for growth.

IDT is the world's largest supplier of custom oligonucleotides - nucleic acids such as RNA and DNA synthesized in a lab. The company employs about 475 at its growing headquarters in Coralville.

Customers - academic scientists, pharmaceutical developers, biotechnologists and medical researchers - go the company's website, type in a DNA or RNA sequence, and press the order button. In most cases, their oligonucleotides arrive on their doorstep within two or three days - invisible to the naked eye in their tiny plastic tubes.

While that might seem miraculous on its own, IDT still faces plenty of competition.

“IDT has responded to such competition in the past few years by offering more products in the form of kits,” says Trey Martin, chief operating officer of IDT. “These value-added genetic products reduce the number of experimental steps performed by researchers, saving them valuable time.”

One of the first kits, introduced in 2007, was the miRCat Small RNA Cloning System, which reduces the time needed to clone small regulatory RNAs from any cellular source in any species.

IDT has since built on the same kit approach with other timesaving products. They include the RNAi TriFECTa Kit, which is used to silence or “knock down” the expression of a specific gene in cells to investigate the gene's function.

In addition to custom oligonucleotides and kits, IDT offers an expanding suite of free, online tools that help scientists design their experiments. Called SciTools, these analysis tools include the popular OligoAnalyzer program, an application that evaluates the properties of oligonucleotide sequences.

The SciTools suite includes programs to calculate reagent concentrations and dilutions and others that help in design, selection and ordering of IDT's extensive collection of five-prime nuclease assays.

The five-prime nuclease assays are a mainstream technology in molecular biology research, and the basis for IDT's Prime Time products. They include a pair of oligonucleotide “primers” and a fluorescently labeled oligonucleotide “probe” for measuring gene expression within individual samples or differences in gene expression between samples.

Using SciTools applications, scientists can choose assays from a assay library designed by IDT or they can design their own custom assays for any genetic sequence.

Developing the SciTools database of assays was a major undertaking. The databases is regularly updated as new DNA sequence discoveries are made.

A team of 14 bioinformatics experts designs the assays, which are then validated by a separate team.

“We went through a very iterative process for about a year until we had the right design rules in place to ensure that the assay selection tools would always work for the customer,” said Stephen Gunstream, vice president of marketing and strategy.

“There are 30,000 human genes,” Gunstream said, “and we have approximately 900,000 human assays predesigned.”

SciTOols offers multiple assays per gene to provide researchers with assays to cover different regions of each gene, its different expression variants, and in some cases mutant forms.

IDT makes the programs freely available to customers despite the research and programming time invested. Gunstream called it an open-source approach, somewhat akin to the open source movement in software.

He said it sets IDT apart from some competitors who believe protecting their designs and processes gives them an advantage.

“We prefer to use a more collaborative approach,” he said. “Ideally we want scientists to come to our website to set up their experiments using our tools, and then just press the order button.

IDT backs up its products and analysis tools with a heavy emphasis on technical and customer support. Customers who need help getting a product or assay to work can call a toll-free number to speak to an IDT specialist.

The company received about 80,000 phone calls and held 20,000 web chats last year, Gunstream said, with an average wait time of only 8 seconds.

While adding convenience has been an effective growth tool, even more growth has come through IDT's global expansion. It acquired RNA-TEC, based in Leuven, Belgium, in 2006 and has made the Leuven operation its European headquarters.

Europe is the company's fastest-growing market.

IDT partnered recently with Glycon Pty Ltd. to offer its products in Australia and New Zealand, and is looking for opportunities to expand is Asia.

A foundation of the company's success has been its ability to scale up the custom manufacturing process using proprietary technology. Visitors to the company's headquarters off Interstate 80 at 1710 Commercial Park immediately notice the long rows of synthesizing machines operating with little human attention.

Because of its custom manufacturing abilities, IDT also serves as a contract oligonucleotide supplier to other private companies that develop and market oligonucleotide-based products.

Under a recent supply agreement, IDT will custom manufacture hundreds of assays developed by Maryland-based Quanta Biosciences to quantify microRNAs - short non-coding ribonucleic acids.

MicroRNAs have generated strong research interest in recent years due in large part to its significant role in cancer-research.

IDT ships some 36,000 oligonucleotides per day to more than 80,000 cusomters worldwide from production facilities in Belgium as well as in Coralville and San Diego.

A warehouse and distribution expansion is IDT's latest addition.

“IDT doubled in size in 1997, added 33 percent more space in 2001 and doubled again in 2005,” Martin said, “and now we're adding 23,000 square feet of warehouse and increasing shipping by about 50 percent.”

The growing presence of IDT in the Iowa City-Coralville area is a big asset when talking to biotech companies about coming to the area, according to Iowa City Area Development, the area economic development agency. Its president and CEO, Joe Raso, said IDT is a familiar name to many biotech companies.

But what many companies don't know about IDT, Raso said, is that it's much more than a genetics company. The company has a skilled bioinformatics unit, develops its own software, and develops its own manufacturing equipment.

In addition to the main headquarters operation, IDT has non-production facilities in the nearby University of Iowa Research Park.

IDT's dedication to facilitating scientific research is partially due to the familiarity of Joseph Walder, its founder and president, with the needs of researchers, the company noted. Walder remains active in genetic research.