After making a name for himself in the 1980s by putting in place the NFL’s first steroid-testing program, Vanderbilt’s Dr. David Black launches Aegis Sciences as an independent laboratory following an initial partnership with the university. The company begins marketing “Drug-Free Workplace” services the next year.

Sen. Bill Frist, M.D., will join the firm as a health care advisor in 2009.

In 2011, Aegis Sciences buys Diagnovus, a Nashville startup co-founded by Dr. James Stover, with a focus on molecular diagnostics.