Twist Bioscience was founded in 2013 by Emily Leproust to commercialize a high-throughput semiconductor-based DNA synthesis technology. The company supplies DNA for research and commercial applications of genetic engineering, and is developing additional markets for applications including digital data storage and DNA origami-based biomaterials and nanostructures.
Twist Bioscience can achieve 1,000x improvements in DNA production density by scaling down from the traditional 96-well plate to tiny micro-wells and channels on a silicon chip of the same area. Throughput is greatly increased because semiconductor-based technology allows the chemical reactions necessary for DNA synthesis to be scaled down by a factor of 1,000,000. Twist Bioscience is able to produce 9,600 genes on a single silicon chip using their technology; compared to 1 gene being produced on the same amount of space using traditional DNA synthesis technologies.
In the video below, CEO of Twist Bioscience Emily Leproust, explains the innovations in DNA synthesis technology.
Chemical Production
Reduce cost of introducing new genes into microorganisms that produce chemicals
Crop Optimization
Improve the throughput and reduce the cost of genetically engineering crops
Drug Discovery
Enable more rapid, cheaper protein engineering for drug discovery
Functional Genomics
Lower cost of identifying disease gene targets
Genome Editing
Reduce cost and increase efficiency of CRISPR technology
Twist Bioscience is providing DNA synthesis to Inovio Pharmaceuticals for its research developing a vaccine against the 2019-nCoV coronavirus, renamed SARS-CoV-2, with the disease called COVID-19 (coronavirus disease).
Twist Bioscience offers a variety of DNA synthesis products and services that are summarized below.
Next generation sequencing (NGS) verified gene clones with no type II S restriction sequences and custom vector onboarding with verification. There is currently a lower limit of 10+ genes (no upper limit ) to place an order that will be ready within 20 business days.
Custom cloning
$50/construct
Minimum order
10 genes
Price
9¢/base
Size
0.3-3.2 kb
Turnaround time
20 business days
Vector Options
Twist catalog or custom vector
Using combinatorial libraries for focused mutagenesis offers more flexibility and better representation than degenerate approaches. Specific codons may be excluded, codon ratio can be controlled, and all libraries are NGS verified.
Delivery and yield
Single tube, 1 ug total
Price
Project-dependent
Product format
Linear double-stranded DNA
Turnaround time
4-6 weeks, project dependent
DNA is being developed as a storage medium for digital data. Twist Bioscience is working with Microsoft and the University of Washington to improve data storage using DNA, and have published research demonstrating high-fidelity storage and random-access retrieval of over 200 MB of data, including an OK Go music video. As the technology matures, DNA could offer a high-density, low-energy, long-term, and secure digital data storage solution. Twist Bioscience explains their work on DNA data storage in their white paper.
Gene fragments are non-clonal, and can be used for several downstream cloning methods for assembly into bigger genes or pathways. The error rate on gene fragment production is approximately 1:3000 base pairs.
Max size
0.3-1.8kb
Minimum order
10 genes
Price
7¢/base
Turnaround time
7-10 business days
Yield
200ng/fragment
Oligo pools are made to be diverse collections of oligonucleotides and can be used for applications such as creation of CRISPR sgRNA libraries high-throughput reporter essays. Oligo pools are made to be highly uniform and accurate for maximal oligo representation and have an error rate of approximately 1:1000 nucleotides (nt).
Minimum order
2,000
Oligo length
Up to 200 nt
Oligo pool size
2,000 to 1,000,000 oligos
Price
Quote
Turn around time
10 days
Yield
>0.1 fmol of each oligo
Site saturation libraries are precise and diverse when compared to traditional directed mutagenesis techniques. Each saturation library is verified using NGS technology. They come free from unwanted codons and can be made to have specific codon ratios.
Delivery and yield
Single tube, 1-2ug total. 96 plate well, 1/2 positions per well of 50 ng each. 384 well plate, 1/2 positions per well of 50 ng each.
Minimum order
48 variants
Price
$50/position
Product format
Linear double-stranded DNA
Turnaround time
3-4 weeks, project dependent
The Twist human core exome kit is a DNA probe target enrichment kit. It comes with modular high performance DNA probes designed to uniformly and accurately capture sequence depth. The modular kit is simple to integrate into existing lab protocols due to its has many customization options.
The turnaround time for orders is still relatively long compared to other lab-based methods, especially for smaller amounts of DNA. Therefore, in certain instances it is more reasonable for researchers and companies to utilize traditional cloning methods depending on the genes needed for experiments. Slow turnaround time for smaller orders is the primary reason Ginkgo Bioworks acquired Gen9, which brought that function in-house.
In 2016 Agilent filed a lawsuit against Twist Bioscience alleging Emily Leproust, a former Agilent employee, stole trade secrets developed by the company to start the DNA synthesis startup.
On May 27th, 2014 Twist Bioscience received $5.1 million dollars in funding from the Defense Advanced Research projects Agency (DARPA). The contract was awarded to Twist Bioscience under DARPA's Living Foundries program.
On Feb 10 2014, Twist Bioscience received $9,100,000 in series A funding from Asset Management Ventures (AMV).
On May 27 2014, Twist Bioscience completed a $26,000,000 series B funding round. Investors include: DARPA, ARCH Venture Partners, Paladin Capital Group, Yuri Milner, and some undisclosed investors.
On June 10 2015, Twist Bioscience closed a $37,000,000 series C funding round. Investors include: Foresite Capital, ARCH Venture Partners, Paladin Capital Group, Venture Investors, Fidelity Management & Research, Illumina, Joby Pritzker, and Yuri Milner.
On March 27th 2017, Twist Bioscience closed a $61,000,000 series D funding round. Investors include: Foresite Capital, ARCH Venture Partners, Paladin Capital Group, Fidelity Management & Research, Illumina, Boris Nikolic, Cormorant Asset Management, WuXi Healthcare Ventures, Yuri Milner, Mérieux Développement, ARCH Overage Fund, Nick Pritzker, and Joby Pritzker.
On June 14th 2017, Twist Bioscience closed a $27,000,000 series E funding round. Investors include: Biomatics Capital, Reinet Fund S.C.A, F.I.S, NFT Investment Limited, KangMei Group, Bay City Capital, GF Xinde Life Science Investment Fund, 3W Partners Capital, and Ditch Plains Capital Management LP.
On April 3rd 2018, Twist Bioscience received $50,000,000 in funding from private investors.
In June 2016, Twist Bioscience became partners with Desktop Genetics, a company using AI to create CRISPR screens. The partnership focuses on developing and integrating DNA synthesis tools to design research protocols that enhance gene editing research. Desktop Genetics works with their customers to design CRISPR sgRNA libraries for a cell line before sending this information to Twist Bioscience for sgRNA library synthesis. This partnership aims to reduce cost and improve efficiency of gene editing research.
In June 2017, the BioBricks foundation partnered up with Twist Bioscience on the Free Genes project, an initiative to create an open-source library of 10,000 genes that form biological parts important for synthetic biology. Twist Bioscience will be providing all the DNA that will be used for the project, and BioBricks will assemble a library of useful genes using its team and drawing on support from the scientific community. All genetic constructs created through this partnership will be made freely available to the public through the Open Material Transfer Agreement, which allows any recipient to use, modify, combine, copy, and redistribute the genes (in compliance with applicable biosafety and intellectual property laws).
In July 2017, Quintara Bioscience and Twist Bioscience became business partners, announcing they will be working together to create qBlock Gene Fragment and qGene DNA cloning services. Twist Bioscience will combine their silicon DNA synthesis technology with Quintara Bioscience's sequencing and cloning technologies to deliver gene fragment and cloning services.
Twist Bioscience and Synbio Technologies became partners on July 11th, 2017. The partnership seeks to combine technologies being used at both companies, by offering DNA strands up to 70 kilobases in length. Twist Bioscience will synthesize DNA strands up to 3.2 kilobases in length before shipping them off to Synbio Technologies for completion. This partnership gives both companies more international presence: Twist Bioscience in located in San Francisco, and Synbio Technologies is in China, so by working together they plan to be able to offer improved DNA strand products that enhance scientific research for the diagnosis and treatment of disease.
Company Patents
William Banyai, Bill James Peck, Andres Fernandez, Siyuan Chen, Pierre Indermuhle, Cheng-Hsien Wu, Esteban Toro
Application
2016-02-11
WO2016022557A1
Cheng-Hsien Wu
Application
2016-11-17
US20160333340A1
Esteban Toro, Sebastian Treusch, Siyuan Chen, Cheng-Hsien Wu
Grant
2017-06-13
US9677067B2
William Banyai, Bill James Peck, Andres Fernandez, Siyuan CHEN, Pierre Indermuhle
Application
2015-05-28
WO2015021080A3
William Banyai, Bill James Peck, Andres Fernandez, Siyuan Chen, Pierre Indermuhle, Eugene P. Marsh
Application
2016-10-27
US20160310927A1
Bill James Peck,Pierre Indermuhle, Eugene P. Marsh, Andres Fernandez, David Stern
Grant
2018-02-20
US9895673B2
Pierre F. Indermuhle, Eugene P. Marsh, Andres Fernandez, William Banyai, Bill J. Peck
Application
2016-08-11
US20160229884A1
Anthony Cox, Sebastian Treusch, Siyuan Chen
Application
2017-03-23
US20170081660A1
On April 6th, 2016 Twist Bioscience acquired the Israeli software company Genome Compiler for an undisclosed price. Twist plans to use Genome Compiler's software developers and technology to build an an e-commerce platform that allows customers to create their own gene designs online before ordering, and to leverage their strong software development team for future projects.
According to BCC Research, the overall market for synthetic biology products is expected to grow from $4.4 billion in 2017 to over $13.9 billion by 2022.
Twist serves 600 customers across the three areas of the synthetic biology market in a broad range of industries. Revenue was $20.5 million for the trailing 12 months ended June 30, 2018, and revenue in the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2018, the company's fiscal year end, is estimated to be between $8.0 million and $8.3 million. Ginkgo Bioworks is Twist Bioscience's largest customer, accounting for 32% of revenue.
Timeline
On April 3rd, 2018 Twist Bioscience received $50,000,000 in funding from private investors.
Twist Bioscience and Synbio Technologies became partners on July 11th, 2017. The partnership seeks to combine technologies being used at both companies, by offering DNA strands up to 70 kilobases in length. Twist Bioscience will synthesis DNA strands up to 3.2 kilobases in length before shipping them off to Synbio Technologies for completion. This partnership gives both companies more international presence, Twist Bioscience in located in France, and Synbio Technologies is in China, and by working together they are able to offer improved DNA strand products that enhance scientific research for the diagnosis and treatment of disease.
In July 2017, Quintara Bioscience and Twist Bioscience became business partners, announcing they will be working together to create qBlock Gene Fragment and qGene DNA cloning services. Twist Bioscience will combine their silicon DNA synthesis technology with Quintara Bioscience's sequencing and cloning technologies to deliver gene fragment and cloning services.
June 14th, 2017 Twist Bioscience received $27,000,000 after completing their series E funding round. Investors include: Biomatics Capital, Reinet Fund S.C.A, F.I.S, NFT Investment Limited, KangMei Group, Bay City Capital GF Xinde Life Science Investment Fund, 3W Partners Capital, and Ditch Plains Capital Management LP.
In June 2017, the BioBricks foundation partnered up with Twist Bioscience to create a library of 10,000 genes that form biological parts important for synthetic biology. Twist Bioscience will be providing all the DNA that will be used for the project, and BioBricks will assemble a library of useful genes using its team and drawing on support from the scientific community. Everything created through this partnership is based on a Open Material Transfer Agreement that allows anyone to have free access to the genes.
On March 27th, 2017 Twist Bioscience received $61,000,000 after completing their series D funding round. Investors include: Foresite Capital. ARCH Venture Partners, Paladin Capital Group, Fidelity Management & Research, Fidelity Management and Research Company, Illumina, Boris Nikolic, Cormorant Asset Management, WuXi Healthcare Ventures, Fidelity Management, Yuri Milner, Merieux Developpement, ARCH Overage Fund, Foresite Capital Management, WuXi, Corporate Venture Fund, Nick Pritzker, and Joby Pritzker.
Funding rounds
People
Anthony Romeo
Employee
aviva gatt
Employee
Bill Peck
Billy Banyai
Boris Nikolić
Investor
Daniel Bibl
Employee
David Maddow
Employee
David Schnayer
Employee
Dominique Toppani
Employee
Emily Leproust
Founder, CEO
Eric Anschutz
Investor
Esteban Toro
Employee
Fay Xing
Investor
Gillian Jarvis
Employee
Hang Ngo
Employee
James Diggans
Employee
Josh Pollick
Attorney
Mark Daniels
Mesut Arik
Employee
Nikhil Haas
Employee
Omri Amirav-Drory
Employee
Patrick Finn
Patrick Weiss
Paula Green
Pierre Indermuhle
Employee
Further reading
Could Synthetic DNA Be the Next Tech Breakthrough?
Jennifer Alsever
Ginkgo Bioworks Triples the Size of DNA Supply Agreement with Twist Bioscience
Christine Stevenson
Twist Bioscience, Desktop Genetics Form CRISPR Partnership
Staff Reporter
Twist Bioscience's $75 Million IPO Expected Next Week for Gene Synthesis Platform
Web
Twist Bioscience’s Partnership with Biobricks Foundation Accelerates Synthetic Biology Discovery
Twist Bioscience press release
UW, Microsoft and Twist Bioscience double down on DNA data storage experiments
Alan Boyle
Why the future will be written in DNA: An interview with Twist Bioscience's Bill Peck - SynBioBeta
Kevin Costa
Documentaries, videos and podcasts
Custom CRISPR Screening Libraries WEBINAR
November 22, 2017
Writing DNA - Emily Leproust, CEO of Twist Bioscience
December 9th, 2016
Companies
Twist Bioscience
Clonal Genes
Twist Bioscience
Combinatorial Libraries
Twist Bioscience
Twist Human Core Exome Kit
Twist Bioscience
Gene Fragments
Twist Bioscience
Oligo Pools
Twist Bioscience
Site Saturation Libraries