WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Cutting-edge equipment

Winooski, Vermont - April 23, 2010

Imagining what his father would think of the Winooski business he and his brother Briar run, Adam Alpert smiles, saying, "I think he'd be thrilled."

What Alpert's dad was really building 42 years ago, when the late University of Vermont physiologist started making scientific instruments, wasn't just equipment but a legacy of optimism. "He believed anything -- everything was possible," Adam Alpert says.

That positive attitude has brought positive results for the Alperts' company, BioTek Instruments. It is now a worldwide leader in making biological testing devices.

Briar Alpert explains, "The instruments that we make here in Vermont are really running some of the most sophisticated biological analyses around the world."

Research labs at universities and hospitals use one of the company's robotic machines to fill hundreds of small modern test tubes all at once. Another product is a screening device to analyze blood types.

From researching new treatments for diseases to analyzing DNA in criminal investigations, the Vermonters are on the forefront of developing cutting-edge equipment. "It is very satisfying to be a little bit involved, to have a small part in helping the world," Adam Alpert says.

The world is the company's marketplace. Only half of BioTek's sales are shipped to the United States. The rest are exported to Europe, Asia and beyond, with Chinese and Indian laboratories emerging as top customers.

Other manufacturers may make cheaper devices, but the Winooski company says pinching pennies is a bad idea with life and death test results on the line. BioTek's tools go for $10,000 to $60,000 apiece with reliability and customer service main selling points. "We find this is a business model we can support from right here in the state of Vermont," Briar Alpert explains.

240 people work at the Winooski headquarters. A fifth of them have been on the payroll 20 years or more, including Mark Boutin. "Once you're here at BioTek, it becomes a home," he says. "For myself, I wouldn't want to go to work anyplace else."

With its products now in labs in 93 countries and counting, BioTek Instruments is proud to be helping expand human knowledge around the globe, and just as proud to be "Made in Vermont."

"I think we're helping the world. What more could you want out of a career, or a life for that matter?" asks Adam Alpert.

BioTek Instruments says when it needs component parts that it cannot manufacture itself, it hires other Vermont companies to do the job whenever possible.

Click here to visit the company's website.

Jack Thurston - WCAX News - Made in Vermont