There's a lot of action around the city these days in the biotechnology field. Madison has been a spawning ground for life-sciences-related businesses for a long, long time, even before Bill Linton thought up the idea of Promega, the subject of Marc Eisen's report this week. But it's a rarity to find such a firm still operating 35 years after its founding without having merged, been acquired or just run out of steam.
But Promega abides, as does Linton, all these years later, in the midst of a landscape it helped create. It was within the lifetime of this newspaper that Fitchburg, once a sleepy village of tenuous Irish origin, fought the battle that granted it city status and a degree of independence from the city of Madison. Today it still struggles to craft a distinctive image, but legally it is its own entity, and it owes a lot of its identity to being the site of a successful technology startup like Promega.
Over that time Promega has been a good citizen of Fitchburg, adding, among other things, to the artistic life of the fledgling city. It regularly hosts arts events in its headquarters. Two years ago it hosted the Peace Corps' 50th anniversary exhibition in its halls, an unusual recognition by a corporate actor. It's exemplary of the idiosyncratic nature Linton has built into his company.
Look for changes in the layout of the home page for TheDailyPage.com. The biggest change is in the Guide column, the listing of current events, which has been expanded to contain 30 items. That will give you a broader look at happenings, especially on the weekends. The change also provides a somewhat more orderly presentation of content departments.
