Twist Bioscience Launches Gene Synthesis Service

Twist Bioscience, a synthetic biology and genomics company, announced on Nov. 14, 2023 that it has launched Express Genes, a new gene synthesis service with a quick turnaround time of five to seven business days. The service, housed in the company’s Wilsonville, Ore., manufacturing facility allows for the rapid production of genes.

Twist’s technology involves the miniaturization of the chemical reaction that creates DNA. The company does this using its silicon-based DNA synthesis platform coupled with expertise, software, honed processes, and an expanded layout at its Wilsonville facility. The technology allows the company to deliver clonal genes and gene fragments at scale and with rapid turnaround times.

“Twist Express Genes is our first new offering enabled by the increased capacity and streamlined processes in our Wilsonville facility. We are now able to deliver the same NGS [next-generation sequencing]-verified clonally perfect genes that our customers have come to expect from Twist in about half the time, at an unprecedented scale. We offer the rapid turnaround that our customers need in multiple formats and at the same speed for one or thousands of genes. With this new offering, we will focus initially on our current customers who we know are making some of their own genes,” said Emily M. Leproust, CEO and co-founder of Twist Bioscience, in a company press release. “We look forward to enabling the ‘Maker’s Market’ to continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible, working to uncover new therapeutic modalities for devastating diseases, ushering in sustainable applications for enzyme engineering and chemical development, and much more. They clone their own genes because otherwise they would have to delay their research while waiting for genes they ordered, and now they won’t have to make that compromise.”

“We surveyed several hundred gene users and found that in addition to those who make their own genes entirely, a large portion of respondents both purchase DNA from a supplier and in parallel make their own,” said Anne St. Louis, director at Percepta Associates, in the press release. “These data suggest that there is a market to capture from researchers in industry and academia who currently use vendors for only part of their total gene production.”

"As a gene therapy startup developing programmable RNA medicines, we routinely generate diverse and customized DNA sequences to advance our technologies and enable application to multiple disease targets. Being able to order sequence-verified large synthetic gene constructs in just one week expands what we can screen and allows faster iterations of the design-build-test cycle," said Susan Byrne, senior principal scientist, Shape Therapeutics, in the press release.

Source: Twist Bioscience