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Like the reeds of an old Aesop fable, the companies that topped our 2011 Best Places to Work in Industry survey are bending—but not breaking—under the strain of continued economic adversity. With funding agencies still awarding grants only to the cream of the crop and 2009 stimulus funds expected to run dry as soon as next year, companies are working hard to find new funding sources that will allow them to survive despite the still-depressed economy.
Taking advantage of the growing personal-genomics boom, for example, DNA Genotek, the survey’s #8 company, expanded the market for its saliva-based DNA collection kit from population geneticists in the field to consumers in their homes by licensing its wares to genetic-testing companies. The recent uptick in the use of personalized genetic tests has boosted DNA Genotek’s income, which the company puts right back into basic research. “Personal genomics just became yet another market that we’re playing into,” says DNA Genotek product development manager Rafal Iwasiow.
New collaborations were also common among this year’s top companies. Epizyme, the survey’s #1 company, which specializes in developing inhibitors for epigenetic enzymes, recently ...
