For nearly four decades, a local company has played a key role on the cutting edge of some of the world’s most complex health issues, yet Athens Research and Technology flies well under the radar for most of the community.
Founded in 1986, ART has had a hand in the study and treatment of health challenges such as inflammation, coronary diseases, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and autoimmune disease by purifying human proteins from plasma and other tissues.
ART also purifies animal proteins and specializes in the preparation of biotherapeutics for proof-of concept studies in animal models.
John Mitchell, CEO of the award-winning company located on Trans Tech Drive, just off Olympic Drive, says ART is content to do its part to make the world a better place without making a lot of noise about it.
“We’re not here to build up Athens,” said Mitchell, who has led ART for two-plus years. “We’re here to supply the world’s best proteins because our purpose is to help change the understanding of disease and to help people develop cures for those diseases. Our tools are that important.
“I don’t care about recognition as long as we understand our value and share that value with drug companies. That’s how we’re growing our business. It’s relationship-oriented. We’re building our relationships and telling our story about what we can do to help researchers and drug companies.”
Creating a talent pipeline
During the dark days of COVID, the company had fewer that 15 employees but has since grown to employ about two dozen, and Mitchell said he expects to have 30 workers by the end of 2023. He added that the Athens area has an impressive “talent pipeline” that he hopes ART continues to help develop.
“We’ve created a talent pipeline that goes back to UGA, Athens Tech and Gwinnett Tech, plus an internship program,” he said. “It takes three years to train up a protein chemist after they get their degree. That’s a lot of time.
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“How about if we have them join us in their first year of tech school? Then they can spend two years interning with us so when they join the team, they’ll make more money and at the same time they’ll make more impact."
ART’s intern program was established last year and Mitchell said the company generally has four interns working at any one time. The company is also reaching deeper into the community for workers with plans to start a program for local high school students.
“We’re working with (CEO) Wesley (Mellina) over at the Athens Community Career Academy to start a bioscience program and we’ll start an internship program for high school seniors,” said Mitchell. “The goal there is to help scholarship them through tech school and have them come back and work for us.