Company of the week: Twist Bioscience

By Thomas Perkins, Jr.

Twist Bioscience literally “prints” DNA.
What’s that mean?

In silicon wells with the diameter wide enough for a nucleotide, a DNA writer (huge machine filled with A,T,C,Gs) will assemble oligos base-by-base in a patented plate that can be used to print 9,600 genes in one run.

To say the least, Twist has a very efficient and highly automated platform to assemble genes discreetly in a HTP format. This allows scientists around the world to purchase specific genes for the purpose of their studies.

Another breakthrough being spearheaded at Twist is DNA data storage.
00 —> A —> 00
01 —> T —> 01
10 —> C —> 10
11 —> G —> 11

My mind was blown when I began working here. I fell in love with my career choice.

We used synthetic DNA libraries to create synthetic antibody/nanobody libraries (library of libraries) for epitope exploration on SARS-CoV-2 virus that led to drug candidates currently in clinical trials. This project by Twist Biopharma led to spin out named Revelar Biotherapeutics.

Info: https://lnkd.in/gF8AcyBN

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What would you do using HTP DNA synthesis technologies?

Create DNA applications, hyper-evolve enzymes, create synthetic drug candidates expressed in mammalian cells, hyper-diversify CDR repertoire to evade immunogenicity, develop IVD that use DNA as a probe, build entirely synthetic genomes to fix nitrogen into the soil, tissue engineering, artificial organs… the possibilities are endless!

If you have purchased from Twist, please comment what you were working on if you feel like sharing!