Birmingham-based Molecular Designs Opens Cutting-Edge Facility

“We started our own physician office lab in 2012,” Austin said. “We were frustrated with the lab market and wanted to could eliminate the time gap. We thought if we figured out how to do it ourselves, we could cut time, provide better patient care, and end up saving money. It turned out we could actually make money doing it.”

Eventually they founded Assurance Scientific Laboratories, which has recently rebranded as Streamline Scientific and Molecular Designs. They have just moved most of their operations into a new state-of-the-art facility in Birmingham’s Perimeter Park. The rapid growth and success of their efforts meant they had their choice of locations when they moved, but they opted to stay in Birmingham.

“It wasn’t guaranteed that this would stay here,” Austin said. “We have clients throughout the country, and there were discussions to move. But we didn’t want to. We had to sell Birmingham to our investors. We told them that Birmingham has great talent. It’s a great medical community, a great biotech community, and a great place to live.”