There were many scientists in the 1980s and 1990s who resisted commercialization. They saw it as a threat to the integrity of science and regarded scientists who were involved in commercial enterprises with suspicion. Other scientists did not agree that commercial ventures posed an existential threat to the culture of science. This second group included Bob Franza, CSHL scientist and co-founder of Protein Databases, Inc., who saw the whole debate as fairly silly. “There were people who were adamantly against” founding companies, and in one particular case that he witnessed the conflict led to a real “knock down drag out battle, people calling each other all kinds of names. It was pretty wild. I just saw all of it as kind of silly to be perfectly honest with you…As long as you’re in full disclosure, and your intent is to advance science, what’s the big deal, seriously? To this day, it bemuses me.”
