ALA Scientific
美國ALA Scientific Instruments, Inc. www.alascience.com
ALA Scientific Instruments, Inc. began as Adams and List assoc. Ltd. in 1986. It was founded by Jonathan J. Adams, a Polish-Jewish immigrant who survived the Auschvitz Concentration Camp and came to the U.S. following World War II. John Adams had started the Medical Systems Corporation in 1960 to distribute Digitimer LTD products in the U.S. The company quickly became the leading supplier of instrumentation for electrophysiology research in the U.S., and in fact Medical Systems Corp. was the first exhibitor at the first annual Society for Neuroscience meeting in 1970; a meeting which now boasts over 400 exhibitors and 25,000 attendees. John Adams retired from Medical Systems in 1984. Retirement could not satisfy his need to be around breakthrough technology so he formed a new company with a former business associate, Jurgen List, a German businessman and president of List Medical and List Electronic GmbH.
The company was called Adams and List Assoc. Ltd. and was based in Great Neck, NY. Its primary purpose was to import and market the products of List Medical, and List Electronic in the U.S. Mr. List had secured lucrative contracts to distribute unique developments of the Max Plank Institute for the then young field of Patch Clamping. In the late eighties, buoyed by a bustling economy and muted competition, List Electronic and Adams and List Assoc. boomed.
In 1988, Alan Kriegstein joined Adams and List Assoc. as the General Manager and a year later he became an equal 1/3 partner and retained the title of President. In 1990, the three partners offered Andrew Pomerantz, a young Electrical Engineer and General Manager from Medical Systems Corp. an equity position in the company as VP, which he accepted. But by this time, American competitors were inching up on List’s lead in the field, and sales of List products were waning. The Gulf War and the resulting recession the following year would take a heavy toll on the company, delivering several quarters of dismal performance.
One of the skills that Andrew Pomerantz brought to the company was an intimate knowledge of manufacturing, both he and Alan realized that this was the only way to rejuvenate the company. It was around this time that John Adams retired from the company and was bought out by Alan Kriegstein. So with Jurgen List still providing products from Germany, Alan and Andrew began to manufacture a product for temperature control and another to perfuse patch pipettes.
The company was moved to Westbury, NY in March of 1991 and a manufacturing facility was set up. Alan and Andrew made additional contacts with other manufacturers and the product line grew. In 1995, Jurgen List retired from the company, leaving Alan and Andrew with full control. Today the company is called ALA Scientific Instruments and employs 10 full time workers and 1 part time worker. We manufacture over a dozen instruments, and over 100 products for drug discovery in neuroscience, which are sold by a dealer network throughout the world. In addition we represent several manufacturers featuring some of the finest and most sophisticated electronic instruments for patch clamping and electrophysiology. Our goal has always been to help further scientific research with innovative instrumentation.
