Their company was founded in 1978 by Linda Shoer. Cholera toxin, the first product, was sought after by those doing research in signal transduction and by others using the toxin B subunit to label neurons. At that time there were no commercial suppliers of this toxin. Their company has always focused on quality bacterial toxins, which you can depend on for your research. Because toxins have been the basis for many vaccines, List Labs products have supported vaccine development. List Labs was the first to commercialize many bacterial toxins for research, including C.difficile toxins and pertussis toxin. Today, they remain uniquely focused on manufacturing, offering and supporting a wide range of bacterial products.

List Labs has been involved in contract manufacturing and consulting from the beginning. In the 90's List Labs was instrumental in the manufacturing of a very popular injectable consumer product to smooth facial wrinkles. Shoer's presence is still strongly felt and the company has always remained a women owned and operated business. In an era of takeovers and transition, List Labs has remained true to its founding focus. Today, the catalog offers over 100 products including toxins, peptides, antibodies and lipopolysaccharides. Many of their employees have worked together for decades. In 2008, they built out a new lab, complete with state of the art equipment, enabling them to work with toxins using the appropriate containment and to capitalize on a growing demand for cGMP bacterial products.