DX Deals: Twist Bioscience Unveils 3 New Strategic Collaborations for Synthetic Biology Discovery
High-quality synthetic DNA powers molecular research and the discovery and development of innovative new diagnostic products. Twist Bioscience has developed a proprietary process featuring a high-throughput silicon platform for miniaturization. It’s a lot like the process used in the semiconductor industry applied to miniaturize chemistry needed for DNA synthesis. The Twist platform is capable of synthesizing 9,600 genes on a single chip, as compared to the single gene produced by traditional methods in the same footprint. Now the South San Francisco-based company is aggressively pursuing strategic collaborations designed to expand its synthetic DNA manufacturing process, unveiling three new partnerships in the past six weeks. The 3 Deals The dealmaking spree began on Aug. 18, when Twist announced that it had partnered with reagent developer SomaLogic to discover new antibodies. The plan calls for Twist to identify antibodies against targets coming out of SomaLogic’s SomaScan proteomics platform. “The SomaScanplatform provides a rich source of clinically relevant biomarkers in diverse therapeutic areas,” noted Twist CEO and cofounder Emily Leproust in a statement. Twist will then move the antibodies discovered through its internal pipeline, with the most promising candidates to undergo preclinical development and subsequent outlicensing to a partner. On Sept. 13, Twist […]
High-quality synthetic DNA powers molecular research and the discovery and development of innovative new diagnostic products. Twist Bioscience has developed a proprietary process featuring a high-throughput silicon platform for miniaturization. It’s a lot like the process used in the semiconductor industry applied to miniaturize chemistry needed for DNA synthesis. The Twist platform is capable of synthesizing 9,600 genes on a single chip, as compared to the single gene produced by traditional methods in the same footprint.
Now the South San Francisco-based company is aggressively pursuing strategic collaborations designed to expand its synthetic DNA manufacturing process, unveiling three new partnerships in the past six weeks.
The 3 Deals
The dealmaking spree began on Aug. 18, when Twist announced that it had partnered with reagent developer SomaLogic to discover new antibodies. The plan calls for Twist to identify antibodies against targets coming out of SomaLogic’s SomaScan proteomics platform. “The SomaScanplatform provides a rich source of clinically relevant biomarkers in diverse therapeutic areas,” noted Twist CEO and cofounder Emily Leproust in a statement. Twist will then move the antibodies discovered through its internal pipeline, with the most promising candidates to undergo preclinical development and subsequent outlicensing to a partner.
On Sept. 13, Twist announced a new collaboration with Menlo Park, California-based Adicet Bio to discover T-cell based cancer therapies for five undisclosed targets. Adicet produces off-the-shelf gamma delta T cells that can be used to enhance tumor targeting. Twist will provide its single-chain variable fragment and single-domain VHH antibody (nanobody) technologies to discover unique target-specific binders in exchange for an undisclosed upfront technology license fee for each program. Twist will also receive clinical and regulatory milestone payments and royalties for any product resulting from the selected targets.
The third deal, which was announced on Sept. 23, follows the same basic pattern but in the realm of artificial intelligence (AI). Twist’s collaborator is DeepCDR, a company that uses deep learning algorithms to discover and optimize antibodies. Twist will utilize Switzerland-based DeepCDR’s large panels of fully human antibody sequences to build multiple fully human naive synthetic antibody libraries, specifically, AI Hypermutated single-chain fragment variable (scFv) library and a new coronavirus-specific scFv library,” Leproust noted in a statement.
Here’s a summary of key strategic diagnostic deals announced in September 2021:
STRATEGIC ALLIANCES, PARTNERSHIPS & COLLABORATIONS
Partner 1 | Partner(s) 2+ | Deal Summary |
---|---|---|
Beckman Coulter Life Sciences | Invitae |
|
Scienion | Pictor |
|
BostonGene | MD Anderson Cancer Center |
|
Genetic Technologies (GT) | Washington University’s Institute for Public Health |
|
PathAI | Summit Clinical Research |
|
Second Genome | Virginia Commonwealth University |
|
Persephone Biosciences | Janssen Biotech |
|
Abacus Diagnostica | Kaivogen+ Labrox |
|
Helix | GenXys Health Care Systems |
|
Genomenon | Alexion Pharmaceuticals |
|
Molecular Health | Eone-Diagnomics Genome Center |
|
Sebia | Metafora Biosystems |
|
Deepcell | Stanford University |
|
Jumpcode Genomics | Translational Genomics Research Institute |
|
Roche | Medial EarlySign |
|
Twist Bioscience | DeepCDR |
|
Twist Bioscience | Adicet Bio |
|
SomaLogic | UPMC |
|
Cedars-Sinai Cancer | Tempus |
|
Siemens Healthineers | A1 Life Sciences |
|
Foundation Medicine | Science 37 |
|
Bio-Techne | Carterra |
|
Illumina | Merck |
|
Agilent Technologies | Visiopharm |
|
Helix | Visiopharm |
|
Bionano Genomics | NuProbe Global |
|
Thermo Fisher Scientific | AstraZeneca |
|
DISTRIBUTION, SALES & MARKETING AGREEMENTS
Product Owner | Distributor | Deal Summary |
---|---|---|
PhenoBiome | Genetic Direction |
|
Truckee Applied Genomics | Thomas Scientific |
|
DnaNudge | Quirónprevención |
|
LICENSES
Licensor | Licensee | Deal Summary |
---|---|---|
JW BioScience | Immunovia | Immunovia globally licenses intellectual property rights for two biomarkers for early pancreatic cancer detection |
GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS
Contractor | Govt. Agency | Contract Summary |
---|---|---|
Celltrion | US Department of Defense | Up to $626 million to Celltrion’s DiaTrust subsidiary to supply Ag Rapid Test SARS-CoV-2 antigen tests to military bases and other test sites across US |
Abbott | US Department of Defense | Up to $554 million for Abbott to supply SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen tests to military bases and other test sites across US |
Subscribe to view Essential
Start a Free Trial for immediate access to this article