Since our founding in 2002, BioLegend has been an innovator in the field of immunology and biomedical research. As we celebrate our 15th anniversary in 2017, we are looking back at some of the most important moments for BioLegend that have brought us where we are today.
BioLegend was established in San Diego, CA in 2002 by Gene Lay, a co-founder of PharMingen. In 2002, we began manufacturing purified and fluorophore-conjugated antibodies for research in our San Diego facility, and in 2003 we began selling recombinant proteins for ELISA and bioassay use.
In 2004, the first scientific paper citing BioLegend was published in the Journal of Immunology. We released ELISA MAX™ Deluxe Standard sets to make ELISA testing more accessible to labs.
In 2007, BioLegend expanded our San Diego facility, and the following year we established operations in Japan and Europe.
In 2008 we became a platinum sponsor of the American Association of Immunologists annual meeting, a status we maintain to this day.
BioLegend continued to expand our ELISA catalogue in 2009, with the release of LEGEND MAX™ ELISAs. In 2010 we expanded to the UK, Germany, and Taiwan.
In 2011, in cooperation with Sirigen Group Ltd., we released the first Brilliant Violet™ conjugates: BV421™ and BV570™. The following year, additional Brilliant Violet™ family members launched, including BV510™, BV605™, BV650™, BV711™, and BV785™.
We became certified for ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 13485:2003 in 2013.
BioLegend acquired the Covance Antibodies business unit in 2014, adding over a thousand products for Neuroscience and Cell Biology and a facility in Dedham, MA.
That year, we released LEGENDplex™, a bead-based multiplexing assay for the analysis of cytokines, and PE/Dazzle™ 594 conjugates, an equivalent to PE/Texas Red®.
In 2015 we launched MojoSortTM, a magnetic bead-based system for cell separation.
In 2016, BioLegend founder Gene Lay won the EY Entrepreneur of the Year® Award in the Life Sciences category for the San Diego region, and became a national finalist in the same category.
That same year, BioLegend became a key reagent contributor for the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. We also released Flex-T™, a novel MHC Tetramer technology for the detection of antigen-specific T cells, and APC/Fire™ 750, a superior alternative to APC/Cy7.
In 2017, BioLegend is celebrating our 15th anniversary. As new breakthroughs and innovations are made in the field of immunology, we will continue to provide the highest quality products to accelerate research and discovery.