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Twist Bioscience

Twist Bioscience

Twist Bioscience is a DNA synthesis company using a next-generation silicon-based technology platform.

OverviewStructured DataIssuesContributors

Contents

twistbioscience.com
Is a
Organization
Organization
Company
Company

Company attributes

Industry
Biotechnology
Biotechnology
Biology
Biology
Synthetic biology
Synthetic biology
Biomedical engineering
Biomedical engineering
DNA sequencing
DNA sequencing
‌
Equipment
Cellular agriculture
Cellular agriculture
Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy
...
Location
Guangzhou
Guangzhou
China
China
South San Francisco, California
South San Francisco, California
San Diego
San Diego
Carlsbad, California
Carlsbad, California
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Singapore
Singapore
San Francisco
San Francisco
B2X
B2C
B2C
CEO
Emily Leproust
Emily Leproust
Founder
William Banyai
William Banyai
Emily Leproust
Emily Leproust
AngelList URL
angel.co/twist-bioscience
Pitchbook URL
pitchbook.com/profiles.../57963-79
Legal Name
Twist Bioscience Corporation
Legal classification
Corporation
Corporation
Number of Employees (Ranges)
201 – 500
Email Address
customersupport@twistbioscience.com
Number of Employees
6520
Full Address
5600 Avenida Encinas, Suite 140D-2 Carlsbad, CA 92008
Rothschild Blvd 3 Tel Aviv 6425322, Israel
681 Gateway Boulevard South San Francisco, CA 94080 United States
Guangzhou International Bio-Island #36 Huanyu Third Road Guanzhou Life Science Innovation Center North Tower, Second Floor, Room 203 Guangzhou, P.R.China 510000
#03-50 Galaxis Workloft 3 Fusionopolis Place Singapore, 138523
CIK Number
1,581,2800
1,110,803
Place of Incorporation
Delaware
Delaware
0
Investors
Illumina Ventures
Illumina Ventures
‌
Reinet Fund
Illumina
Illumina
FIS (company)
FIS (company)
Reinet Investments
Reinet Investments
Silicon Valley Bank
Silicon Valley Bank
Foresite Capital
Foresite Capital
ARCH Venture Partners
ARCH Venture Partners
...
DUNS Number
0515753090
IRS Number
462,058,8880
Founded Date
2013
Total Funding Amount (USD)
253,100,000
Latest Funding Round Date
April 2, 2018
Business Model
Commerce
Stock Symbol
TWST0
Exchange
Nasdaq
Nasdaq
0
Glassdoor ID
925103
Board of Directors
Nicolas Barthelemy
Nicolas Barthelemy
‌
Nelson Chan
Keith L. Crandell
Keith L. Crandell
Emily Leproust
Emily Leproust
Bob Ragusa
Bob Ragusa
William Banyai
William Banyai
Rob Chess
Rob Chess
‌
Xiaoying Mai
...
CTO
‌
Siyuan Chen
CFO
‌
Jim Thorburn
Key People
‌
Siyuan Chen
‌
Paula Greene
‌
Aaron Sato
Patrick Finn
Patrick Finn
Emily Leproust
Emily Leproust
‌
Jim Thorburn
‌
Patrick Weiss
Latest Funding Type
Series D
Series D
CAGE Code
6Z0F40
Patents Assigned (Count)
32
COO
‌
Patrick Weiss
Wellfound ID
twist-bioscience
Country
United States
United States
Headquarters
San Francisco
San Francisco

Other attributes

Blog
twistbioscience.com/blog
Company Operating Status
Active
Contact Page URL
twistbioscience.com/contact
SIC Code
2,8360
Wikidata ID
Q43303430
Overview

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 its technology, compared to 1 gene being produced on the same amount of space using traditional DNA synthesis technologies.

In the video below, the CEO of Twist Bioscience, Emily Leproust, explains the innovations in DNA synthesis technology.

Twist Bioscience CEO Emily Leproust discusses DNA Synthesis technology

Applications of Synthetic DNA

Application
Description

Chemical Production

Reduces the cost of introducing new genes into microorganisms that produce chemicals

Crop Optimization

Improves the throughput and reduces the cost of genetically engineering crops

Drug Discovery

Enables more rapid, cheaper protein engineering for drug discovery

Functional Genomics

Lowers the cost of identifying disease gene targets

Genome Editing

Reduces the cost and increases the 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).

Products and services

Twist Bioscience offers a variety of DNA synthesis products and services that are summarized below.

Clonal genes​

Clonal genes are 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 ten genes (no upper limit ) to place an order that will be ready within twenty business days.

Clonal gene details

Product details
Information

Custom cloning

$50/construct

Minimum order

10 genes

Price

9¢/base

Size

0.3-3.2 kb

Turnaround time

20 business days

Combinatorial libraries

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.

Combinational libraries details

Product details
Information

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 digital data storage

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 has 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.

Gene fragments​

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.

Gene fragment details

Product details
Information

Max size

0.3-1.8kb

Minimum order

10 genes

Price

7¢/base

Turnaround time

7-10 business days

Yield

200ng/fragment

Oligo pools​

Oligo pools are made to be diverse collections of oligonucleotides and can be used for applications such as the creation of CRISPR sgRNA libraries high-throughput reporter essays. Oligo pools are designed to be highly uniform and accurate for maximal oligo representation and have an error rate of approximately 1:1000 nucleotides (nt).

Oligo pool information

Product details
Information

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

Site saturation libraries​

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.

Site saturation libraries details

Product details
Information

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

Twist human core exome kit​

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 many customization options.

Alternatives and lawsuits

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.

Funding
Government grants/awards

On May 27, 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.

Series A

On Feb 10, 2014, Twist Bioscience received $9,100,000 in series A funding from Asset Management Ventures (AMV).

Series B

On May 27, 2014, Twist Bioscience completed a $26,000,000 series B funding round. Investors included DARPA, ARCH Venture Partners, Paladin Capital Group, Yuri Milner, and some undisclosed investors.

Series C

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.

Series D

On March 27, 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.

Series E

On June 14, 2017, Twist Bioscience closed a $27,000,000 series E funding round. Investors included 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.

Private placement

On April 3, 2018, Twist Bioscience received $50,000,000 in funding from private investors.

Partnerships
Desktop genetics

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 its 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 the cost and improve the efficiency of gene editing research.

BioBricks Foundation

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).

Quintara Biosciences

In July 2017, Quintara Bioscience and Twist Bioscience became business partners, announcing it would be working together to create qBlock Gene Fragment and qGene DNA cloning services. Twist Bioscience combines its silicon DNA synthesis technology with Quintara Bioscience's sequencing and cloning technologies to deliver gene fragment and cloning services.

Synbio Technologies

Twist Bioscience and Synbio Technologies became partners on July 11, 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 is 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

Patent Description
Inventor
Status
Date
App/pub number

Cell free cloning of nucleic acids

William Banyai, Bill James Peck, Andres Fernandez, Siyuan Chen, Pierre Indermuhle, Cheng-Hsien Wu, Esteban Toro

Application

2016-02-11

WO2016022557A1

Compositions and methods for nucleic acid amplification

Cheng-Hsien Wu

Application

2016-11-17

US20160333340A1

Compositions and methods for synthetic gene assembly

Esteban Toro, Sebastian Treusch, Siyuan Chen, Cheng-Hsien Wu

Grant

2017-06-13

US9677067B2

De novo synthesized gene libraries

William Banyai, Bill James Peck, Andres Fernandez, Siyuan CHEN, Pierre Indermuhle

Application

2015-05-28

WO2015021080A3

Devices and methods for oligonucleic acid library synthesis

William Banyai, Bill James Peck, Andres Fernandez, Siyuan Chen, Pierre Indermuhle, Eugene P. Marsh

Application

2016-10-27

US20160310927A1

Mergers/acquisitions
Genome Compiler

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 e-commerce platform that allows customers to create their own gene designs online before ordering and to leverage its strong software development team for future projects.

Revenue

According to BCC Research, the overall market for synthetic biology products was 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 twelve 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

No Timeline data yet.

Funding Rounds

Products

Acquisitions

SBIR/STTR Awards

Patents

Further Resources

Title
Author
Link
Type
Date

2018 Annual Report

https://www.annualreports.com/HostedData/AnnualReportArchive/t/NASDAQ_TWST_2018.pdf

2019 Annual Report

https://www.annualreports.com/HostedData/AnnualReportArchive/t/NASDAQ_TWST_2019.pdf

Could Synthetic DNA Be the Next Tech Breakthrough?

Jennifer Alsever

http://fortune.com/2017/01/26/synthetic-dna-bolt-threads/

Custom CRISPR Screening Libraries WEBINAR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfgsumZ2TrY

November 22, 2017

Emily Leproust Making DNA from Scratch​

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXCXJ8DAvIA​

August 2nd, 2017

References

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