Last August, Kunhua Chen, CEO at Exon Biosystems — a San Diego – based contract research organization (CRO) specializing in protein services — got a request from Elan Pharmaceuticals for a quote to sequence 14 antibodies. Recognizing the fit between his company’s abilities and the requested work, he responded right away. Two weeks later he got an email that Elan was ready to order. A month after that, he struck a deal for $80,000 — the biggest project in the company’s three and a half year history.