Company History

Avidity, LLC was founded in 1996 by Millard Cull, Larry Lansing, Dr. Ron Gill, and Dr. Mark Seville to develop peptide tags and molecular biology products based upon the extraordinary affinity of biotin for avidin or streptavidin. While working at Affymax as a researcher, Millard was involved in the discovery of the AviTag technology, saw its commercial potential, and obtained the exclusive rights from Affymax. He started Avidity as a reagent company that sublicenses the right to use the AviTag technology to other companies and sells products for use with the technology.

AviTag History

AviTag was a patented biotin-tagging technology discovered at Affymax by Dr. Peter Schatz from a Directed Evolution approach called "Peptides-on-Plasmids." The Directed Evolution approach identified a number of peptide sequences that can be biotinylated by the BirA enzyme of E. coli, and the best of these sequences was called the AviTag. E. coli enzyme BirA biotinylates the 15 amino acid AviTag twice as fast as its natural substrate, the Biotin Carboxyl Carrier Protein (BCCP).

The enzymatic biotinylation of proteins using AviTag technology is preferred over chemical biotinylation of proteins because BirA enzyme gently, and highly specifically, labels the lysine residue of the AviTag. Prior to the AviTag, the smallest biotin-accepting domain was comprised of 75 amino acids.

The Future

As Avidity matures, the company is expanding its scientific horizons and investigating the use of bioluminescence-such as found in deep sea organisms-to make its products even more useful to the scientific community. Avidity was approached by Dr. Bruce Bryan of Prolume, Ltd., in 2004 to use the AviTag in conjunction with Prolume's Gaussia luciferase and Green Fluorescent Proteins (GFP). The first Gaussia-AviTag product was released in November, 2007.

Additionally, Avidity is working to develop a new generation of highly mobile, simple, inexpensive and incredibly powerful diagnostics by combining an extraordinarily sensitive optical sensor with luciferase-based assays. 

Quality Guarantee, Customer Service, Refund/Return/Cancellation Policies

Avidity stands behind its products. If for any reason our product does not meet our customers expectations, we will replace the product at no cost or refund the purchase price of the product. Customers must notify Avidity within 90 days of purchase regarding any product issues. We do not require the return of any product that a customer deems unacceptable, unusable or less than satisfactory. Orders may be cancelled at any time prior to the shipment of the order by contacting us.  

Avidity is very responsive to all customer inquiries and strives to be a valued scientific partner by providing timely shipping of orders, expert technical support and the sharing of ideas.

Delivery Policy

Domestic Orders within the United States: Avidity ships all domestic orders via UPS or Federal Express overnight delivery on dry ice.  We do not ship domestic orders on Fridays, Saturdays or Sundays.

International Orders: Avidity ships all international orders via UPS Worldwide Saver Express or via Federal Express International Priority delivery on dry ice.  We normally ship international orders on Mondays to allow for the order to clear customs and be delivered within 5 days unless the customer arranges special shipping instructions.

Environmental Responsibility

Avidity is a concerned member of the global scientific community and has adopted corporate policies aimed to help combat global warming and environmental pollution and do its save the planet from humankind's destructive nature. Each year, we pledge a 1 of our net profits to be donated to non-profit environmental protection organizations. If you know of a worthy organization that should be considered to be a recipient of this corporate support, please do not hesitate to forward Avidity the information.

Partnerships and Collaborations

As scientists, we understand the value of partnering with both academic and for-profit research institutions. Avidity has opened its doors and labs to graduate students and post-doctoral fellows from the University of Colorado and the University of Denver, and we are always interested in scientific collaborations with other companies and academic institutions.