Gen9 Launches GeneBytes™ to Enable Gene-Scale Synthetic Biology
At lengths up to 3,000 base pairs, GeneBytes are being produced for customers in chemical and enzyme production, agriculture, biofuels, and pharmaceuticals
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — May 29, 2013 — Gen9, Inc., a pioneer in the development of scalable technologies for synthesizing and assembling DNA, today announced the commercial availability of GeneBytes™ DNA constructs, or gene fragments, manufactured at lengths ranging from 1,000 to 3,000 base pairs long. This new capacity extends the company’s product portfolio, which also includes GeneBits™ constructs, shorter DNA snippets in the range of 500 to 1,000 base pairs. By the end of 2013, Gen9 plans to offer synthesized genes up to 10,000 base pairs long. Both GeneBits and now GeneBytes are produced as clonal, sequence-verified DNA and are shipped to the customer either as linear double-stranded DNA or cloned into vectors.
With high-accuracy constructs in the multi-kilobase (Kbp) range, scientists in biology and many other industrial fields will be able to study the behavior of full genes, metabolic pathways, distant genetic elements, genomes and new aspects of DNA that cannot currently be interrogated, or even created, with shorter synthetic DNA constructs. Scientists researching alternative energy sources, for example, are investigating ways in which certain plants can be modified to produce more material that can be turned into a biofuel. Providing longer DNA constructs allows them to look at full genes, rather than fragments, faster and with less trial and error.
“Gen9’s BioFab platform is the first commercial technology that enables long, error-free stretches of DNA in large volumes, at very affordable prices,” said Kevin Munnelly, President and Chief Executive Officer of Gen9. “We believe that the synthetic biology market is on the cusp of operating within Moore’s Law scale. Our new GeneBytes product is an example of how we’ve leveraged our BioFab platform to realize dramatic improvements in quality and capacity while continually offering lower pricing.”
Gen9 is a privately held company with a portfolio of next-generation gene synthesis technologies that enable the high-throughput, automated production of DNA constructs at lower cost and higher accuracy than previous methods. Together, these technologies form the foundation of the Gen9 BioFab® platform, which has the capacity to generate tens of thousands of synthetic gene fragments in just a few square feet of laboratory space. Today, Gen9’s products are being used across a number of transformative applications in pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals, enzymes, agriculture and biofuels.
Gen9 has developed a proprietary QA/QC pipeline to monitor purity, yield and sequence fidelity, and ensure the shipping of a validated, high-quality product. Gen9 recently announced a relationship with Agilent, whereby Gen9 will incorporate Agilent’s Oligonucleotide Library Synthesis (OLS) technology into its manufacturing process to further advance its capabilities and allow for the large-scale creation of pathway constructs and DNA libraries. To ensure the safe and constructive use of synthetic DNA, Gen9 follows the Screening Framework Guidance issued by the U.S. government for Providers of Synthetic Double-Stranded DNA as well as the International Gene Synthesis Consortium (IGSC)’s Harmonized Screening Protocol.
For more information about Gen9 and its products, please visit www.gen9bio.com.
About Gen9
Gen9 is building on advances in synthetic biology to power a scalable fabrication capability that will significantly increase the world’s capacity to compile DNA content. The privately held company’s next-generation DNA synthesis technology allows for the high-throughput, automated production of DNA constructs at lower cost and higher accuracy than previous methods on the market. Founded by world leaders in synthetic biology, Gen9 aims to ensure the constructive application of synthetic biology in industries ranging from enzyme and chemical production to pharmaceuticals and biofuels. Gen9 is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and can be found online at www.gen9bio.com.
Gen9, GeneBits, GeneBytes and BioFab are trademarks or registered trademarks of Gen9, Inc. All other brands may be trademarks of their respective holders.