Research hospitals, university laboratories and global pharmaceutical companies, all itching to discover new drugs and treatments for a variety of diseases, depend heavily on some pretty technical ingredients. Primary among these is artificial DNA, which allows researchers and doctors alike to decode and study your genetic makeup.
But where do these institutions get what they need to complete their research?
From Dr. Joseph Walder, an ultra-Orthodox Jew who aligns himself strongly with the Lubavitch movement, and is the founder and C.E.O. of Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT), the largest of the four major DNA-producing companies in the U.S. With 425 employees, branches in Iowa, Chicago and San Diego, as well as a new satellite facility in Belgium, IDT is a multimillion-dollar biotechnology company that cranks out more than 25,000 strands of DNA per day. "There's a gold rush out there," says Walder of biotechnology. "Scientists are trying to mine all this new information. What we're doing is selling them the picks and shovels."
Slightly built, with a high, nasal voice, Walder appears more like an overgrown yeshiva student than a biotech multi-millionaire. And so it's more than a little difficult to believe - and understand - exactly what he does.
Walder's company fills a crucial niche in the rapidly advancing field of biotechnology, which can involve anything from creating new bacteria to plotting the human genome. None of it is possible, though, without its staple prerequisite: artificial DNA (identical to natural DNA, only shorter).
But, for those of us who never made it past high school biology, perhaps a brief "Cliff Notes" is in order. DNA, also known as deoxyribonucleic acid, contains the genetic information that serves as blueprints for every organism. Nestled inside of each chromosome, DNA is a sort of double-helix necklace. IDT's job is to custom-make short strands of this "necklace" - formally called oligonucleotides - and ship them to research institutions such as university hospitals or biotech start-up companies.
Walder did not start out in science, but by the time he finished high school, he had decided to go into medicine. Ten years later, with an M.D. and Ph.D in biochemistry from Northwestern University, he took a position in the University of Iowa's biochemistry department. In 1987, he founded the company that has now taken over his life, and by 1994, he had built its headquarters in Coralville, Iowa.
Still, Walder's scientific journey did not occur in a vacuum. In fact, at the same time that IDT was taking off, he was going through a transformation of his own. Raised in a Conservative household, Walder gradually drifted away from Judaism. However, his Skokie, Illinois-based sister was Orthodox, and periodic visits to her home offered him some exposure to the religious side of Judaism.
For Walder, who was searching for spirituality at the time, these visits had an enormous impact. In fact, one Purim afternoon in 1994, while taking part in a holiday meal at a Skokie Kollel, everything suddenly clicked- and Walder visibly lights up when he talks about this. "In a couple of months, I went from being unaffiliated to looking like I am now."
Walder's newfound religion meant changes for his company as well. Within that same year, he moved to Chicago and began renting a modest facility in Skokie to serve as IDT's accounting and business development center, leaving ample space for him to create his ideal workspace.
"In principle," says Walder, "there's no reason why the work environment should be any less sanctified than the beit medresh [house of study]."
And, as I trail along Walder on a tour of his newest Skokie facility, it's clear he's taken that philosophy to heart. Walder gestures proudly at the in-house beit midrash, replete with Ark, Torah and sitting room for roughly 100. "We get about 40 to 50 for mincha [afternoon prayers] on a daily basis," he tells me.
Walder draws me past the pink and white terrazzo floors, past the 15-foot mural of a double helix, past the kosher cafeteria, and into another wing entirely: the ATT Frankel Teacher Resource Center. It's a teacher's paradise: a three-story-high room housing more art projects than a child could master in a lifetime; bulletin board ideas and the materials to complete them; a plethora of machines and other tools; and table room for 80 teachers to work simultaneously. Around the corner is a Jewish curriculum library, an audio visual collection, a computer lab and a day-care center at which teachers can drop off their kids while using the center.
The Frankel Center is just one aspect of another one of Walder's projects, The Foundation for Learning and Development. Led by Walder and his wife, Shira Malka, the Foundation has two main goals: enhance Jewish education through materials and training, and fund Chicago's Orthodox day schools. "We're trying to bring holinesss into the workplace," says Walder of his many projects.
As we begin to wind down our conversation, I ask Walder one last
question: how does he reconcile science with religion? "Any view that [science and religion] are contradictory stems from a misunderstanding of one or the other or both," he begins. Then he goes into a mini-history lesson on the development of scientific thinking, incorporating the Big Bang, Maimonides, Einstein and relativity.
"In a certain sense," he continues, "the scientific view that there isn't a creator is itself a religious philosophy because there are no scientific grounds to believe that ... To go from nothing to something-to matter or energy-that's outside the realm of physical possibilities. So from a religious point of view, we don't just shrug our shoulders. We say G-d did it."
And, according to Walder, that's not all He did. When asked about his company's enormous success, he credits G-d, whom he considers his highly competent business partner. "Once you have Hashem as your partner," he laughs, "then you've got a lot going on your side. And when G-d delivers on His side, we have to deliver on our side."?
Mindy Schiller is the assistant editor of the World Jewish Digest. ©
2007 World Jewish Digest. Shortened and reprinted with permission. For the longer version of this article, go to http://www.blogger.com/www.worldjewishdigest.com
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