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Synthetic biology has enabled the rational design, assembly, and engineering of living systems and over the past decade, there has been tremendous progress owing to technological advances. To realize the full potential of synthetic biology, there are still gaps that need to be addressed.
Bottlenecks slow the iterative design-build-test-learn cycle that is central to synthetic biology. Moreover, they impede broader efforts in fields such as antibody discovery, adoptive cell therapy, vaccine discovery, and protein and pathway engineering. To facilitate discovery in these fields, the activities surrounding DNA and RNA synthesis must become more accessible, flexible, and efficient.
Current options include outsourcing to a custom synthesis provider or performing in-house manual production methods. Unfortunately, outsourcing results in the relinquishment of control over quality as well as consistency, and it can result in unpredictable lead times and delays of up to 11 weeks depending on the complexity of the project.
The synthesis of mRNA, for example, often requires that skilled researchers devote considerable time and attention not only to the synthesis, assembly, and cloning of DNA fragments, but also to the selection of the right construct, that is, the construct that will serve as a template for mRNA transcription. Completion of transcription, purification, and confirmation of the mRNA beginning from template preparation can take five weeks or often longer. These painstaking manual options are resource intensive and riddled with inefficiencies.
Visualizing the future
Automation platforms, such as the BioXp® platform from Telesis Bio, accelerate workflows in discovery that depend on synthetic biology’s design-build-test-learn paradigm. The BioXp platform and current de novo synthesis kits give laboratories control over their workflows and IP portfolios. Scientists can efficiently synthesize constructs from scratch in a few days to begin screening, accelerating the identification of lead candidates. Telesis Bio’s vision is to move beyond synthetic biology as it is currently understood to overcome gaps and bottlenecks across entire molecular biology workflows in the most widely used discovery applications. Researchers can now gain control and efficiently begin the build process from their sequence or input DNA, and automatically generate final synthetic DNA or mRNA product in hours.
Regardless of their application, workflow, or the input material, researchers can leverage the BioXp platform to address their varied needs using the new collection of off-the-shelf BioXp Select kits.
Currently available Select kits that permit scientists to begin with their own input DNA support RNA synthesis and cell-free DNA amplification. This year, Telesis Bio plans to introduce additional cloning kits to provide even more flexibility.
“These releases represent our commitment to open our platform and provide scientists the flexibility to adapt the BioXp® System to their process and begin with their own materials. We believe that enabling scientists to begin the cloning, amplification, and mRNA synthesis process from their own linear DNA or plasmid DNA will empower them to advance their research and accelerate their discoveries,” says Dan Gibson, PhD, CTO and co-founder, Telesis Bio.
Besides supporting synthetic biology applications, the BioXp platform is also poised to enable multiple multiomic workflows. These new offerings will automate next-generation sequencing library preparation, a natural extension of the construct synthesis workflow, and CRISPR gRNA synthesis offering researchers access to more comprehensive workflow solutions.
Streamlining and facilitating discovery
The Telesis Bio automated platform accelerates synthesis and integrates multiomic workflows, offering a robust and versatile molecular biology workstation for streamlining discovery workflows in antibody discovery, adoptive cell therapy, vaccine discovery, and protein and pathway engineering. Off-the-shelf BioXp Select kits extend the capabilities and enhance the speed and flexibility of the BioXp workstation beyond de novo synthesis. Scientists can now reliably and seamlessly integrate diverse molecular biology applications across their discovery workflow.
Find your breakthrough automation solutions at telesisbio.com/workflows.