Key Products

Genes

1. Clonal Genes

Twist Bioscience’s platform is capable of synthesizing thousands of genes each day to meet all your DNA needs.

2. Gene Fragments

Synthetic Gene Fragments are an inexpensive, rapid, and efficient way to build the genes you need for your research. Gene Fragments from Twist Bioscience improve your cloning process by minimizing colony screening.

3. Oligo Pools

Twist Oligo Pools are highly diverse collections of single-stranded oligonucleotides synthesized using their silicon-based DNA writing technology.

4. Next-Generation Sequencing

Achieve superior enrichment efficiency with Twist Bioscience NGS Target Enrichment Solutions. Targeted sequencing takes a step forward with an optimized enrichment workflow and easy customization of panel content.

5. Variant Libraries

Dedicated to creating well-designed, highly diverse libraries to ensure that you uncover more of what you want and only what you want.

Synthetic Viral Controls

1. Monkeypox Controls

Twist’s Synthetic human Monkeypox Virus (hMPXV) Controls are based on sequences from either the Congo Basin (CB) or West African (WA) clades of hMPXV and provide coverage of ≥80% of the viral genome. As a result, these controls support the design of custom assays targeting regions of the genome relevant to orthopoxvirus research and can be used for both amplicon and capture-based detection methods.

2. SARS-CoV-2 Controls

Twist has created synthetic RNA controls for several viral genomes. These variants were selected to cover a wide range of sequence diversity. Each control consists of six non-overlapping 5 kb fragments generated from Twist Gene Fragments then transcribed into ssRNA. These controls provide coverage of greater than 99.9% of the bases of the SARS-CoV-2 viral genome.

3. Respiratory Virus Controls

The Twist Synthetic Respiratory Virus Controls cover a broad range of RNA and DNA viruses relevant to respiratory disease research. These controls are aligned with the content of the Twist Respiratory Virus Research Panel (PN 103067) and are suitable for use with Twist Fixed Panel NGS workflows or for use with RT-PCR or qPCR experiments of your own design.

4. Antibody Discovery

Accelerate the way you develop antibodies, with a best-in-class discovery platform, antibody optimization services, and more.

Tools for Addressing the SARS-CoV-2 Virus

1. NGS for Virus Detection

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) offers high-throughput, specific identification of infections in blood samples. In the case of viral infections, however, obtaining genetic material sufficient for sequencing can be a challenge due to the extremely low levels of virus often present.

2. Antibodies for COVID-19 Therapeutic and Diagnostic Development

The Twist Biopharma team is excited to announce the launch of two panels of antibodies with specificity against SARS-CoV-2 S or human ACE2 proteins. The SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein panel and the ACE2 antibody panel consist of sets of individual recombinant human antibody clones that show very high specificity and binding affinities to their targets with many in the picomolar to nanomolar range.

Key Executives

Emily Leproust, PhD, CEO and Co-Founder of Twist

As an early pioneer in the high-throughput synthesis and sequencing of DNA, Dr. Leproust is disrupting markets to enable the exponential growth of DNA-based applications including chemicals/materials, diagnostics, therapeutics, food and digital data storage. In 2020, BIO presented her with the Rosalind Franklin Award for Leadership. Foreign Policy named her one of their 100 Leading Global Thinkers and Fast Company named her one of the Most Creative People in Business. Prior to Twist Bioscience, she held escalating positions at Agilent Technologies where she architected the successful SureSelect product line that lowered the cost of sequencing and elucidated mechanisms responsible for dozens of Mendelian diseases. She also developed the Oligo Library Synthesis technology, where she initiated and led product and business development activities for the team. Dr. Leproust designed and developed multiple commercial synthesis platforms to streamline microarray manufacturing and fabrication. She serves on the Board of Directors of CM Life Sciences and is a co-founder of Petri, an accelerator for start-ups at the forefront of engineering and biology. Dr. Leproust has published over 30 peer-reviewed papers – many on applications of synthetic DNA, and is the author of numerous patents. She earned her Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from University of Houston and her M.Sc. in Industrial Chemistry from the Lyon School of Industrial Chemistry.

Patrick Finn, President And Chief Operating Officer

Patrick has a strong track record of high-growth sales in bioreagent, B2B and custom manufacturing organizations. His technical background paired with his ability to identify customer’s unmet needs make him the ideal fit to lead our commercial organization. Before Twist Bioscience, Paddy served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Enzymatics (recently acquired by QIAGEN), leading commercial activities for North America and Europe, delivering significant top line growth and expanding the base of business to business customers. Prior to Enzymatics, Paddy held positions with increasing commercial focus, including Director of Business Development at Agilent Technologies, Director of Product Development for Beckman Coulter Molecular Diagnostics, and multiple technical roles in product development within Invitrogen and GE Healthcare/Amersham International. In addition, Paddy currently serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of Lasergen and previously served on the Scientific Advisory Board of Enzymatics. He holds a PhD in Nucleic Acid Chemistry from Southampton University and a BSc Hons in Chemistry from Heriot-Watt University.

Jim Thorburn, Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Thorburn is a seasoned technology executive with more than 30 years of finance and operating experience in both private and public technology companies. Prior to Twist Bioscience, he served as Chief Sales Officer of Televerde, a demand generation and sales acceleration enterprise, focused on scaling the business internationally. Prior to Televerde, he served as interim CFO of several public and private companies including Enercore, Next Autoworks, Fisker Automotive and Numonyx (acquired by Micron). As interim CFO of Numonyx, he was responsible for coordination of the merger between ST Microelectronics and the Intel Flash Memory divisions as well as the financing to support the $2B revenue company. Before Numonyx, he served as chairman and CEO of ZiLOG, leading the successful turnaround of the business, public offering and ultimate sale to IXYS. Jim has served as an operator consultant to Texas Pacific Group (TPG), COO and Co-President of ON Semiconductor and led the buyout and IPO of ON.

Prior to ON Jim held various senior executive financial positions in the business units of National Semiconductor.

Mr. Thorburn is a former member of the Board of Directors for IXYS Corporation. He received his BSc (Hons.) in Agricultural Economics from the University of Glasgow and passed the Chartered Institute Management Accountant exams.

Aaron Sato, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer

Aaron is a proven biologics leader adept at managing teams to discover and develop novel first-in-class antibody therapeutics. Prior to Twist Bioscience, he served as Chief Scientific Officer of LakePharma, leading the California Antibody Center, which discovers novel antibody therapeutics for its clients. Prior to LakePharma, he oversaw all discovery research functions both as Vice President of Protein Sciences at Surrozen, and previously, as Vice President of Research at Sutro Biopharma, Inc. He also served as Senior Director of Antibody Engineering at OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for human antibody lead discovery and he served as project team leader on several key antibody projects through IND filing. Before OncoMed, Aaron held positions of increasing responsibility at Dyax Corp., most recently as Senior Director of Lead Discovery, leading antibody, peptide, and small protein discovery using their proprietary phage display technology. He earned his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he studied MHC class II structure-function relationships. He is an author of over 30 peer reviewed papers and 40 issued patents in the antibody space.

Siyuan Chen, Chief Technology Officer

Dr. Chen is a strategic thinker with a proven track record of identifying, developing, and commercializing innovative products in NGS, synthetic biology, and other life science areas. He joined Twist shortly after the company was founded and led product development for both the synthetic biology and NGS product lines. Dr. Chen conceived and implemented a new product line for NGS that includes synthetic controls for SARS-CoV-2 and other infectious diseases, developed gene synthesis and NGS target enrichment biochemistries, workflow, reagent kits, and infrastructure, and built the company’s prototype DNA synthesizer in collaboration with hardware, software, and silicon engineers, which later became a production-scale machine, serving as Twist’s foundation technology. Dr. Chen is the author of numerous peer-reviewed papers and issued patents in the field of oligonucleotide synthesis and application of synthetic oligonucleotides. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and B.Sc. in Chemistry from Peking University in Beijing, China.

Company Responsibility

Environmental

Platform Reduces Reagent Use by 99.8%

They have miniaturized traditional chemical DNA synthesis reactions to write over one million short pieces of DNA on each silicon chip which is approximately the size of a large mobile phone. As a result of these efforts their core platform technology reduces waste and consumption of chemical reagents by 99.8%, making their process significantly more sustainable and environmentally friendly than legacy methods.

Social

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging

Twist Bioscience employees come from more than 25 countries and bring many different thoughts, identities and lived experiences to Twist. They believe their company is stronger because of the variety of experiences and backgrounds their employees bring to their work every day. They believe diverse teams drive better business decisions by challenging each other, sharing a broader range of possibilities from their experiences and resulting in more innovative products and services. They believe that by fostering an inclusive work environment—one which appreciates individual differences and the adoption of equitable practices to advance underrepresented groups—contributes to increasing employee job satisfaction and commitment to their company, as well as reduced absenteeism.

Governance

Guiding Principles and Business Ethics Twist Bioscience guiding principles of grit, impact, service, and trust serve as their cultural pillars. Their guiding principles set the tone for how they work together, provide a framework for giving feedback and increase the power of their brand.

Customer insights

“Twist is the only synthetic DNA provider who can deliver the quantity and quality of DNA we need for our projects rapidly. We are working with them not only as a vendor for synthetic genes and antibodies, but have expanded our relationship to leverage the Twist Biopharma capabilities, which we believe complement our antibody discovery efforts.” – Robert Carnahan, PhD, Associate Director Of The Vanderbilt Vaccine Center

“Boehringer Ingelheim believes Twist’s ability to generate potent, diverse therapeutic antibodies by mining its comprehensive libraries, combined with our extensive capabilities and experience in drug discovery and development, will enable us to deliver breakthrough opportunities to patients” – Clive R. Wood, Ph.D, Senior Corporate Vice President and Global Head of Discovery Research Boehringer Ingelheim

Company insights

“Modern global sustainability is the integration of the environment, people, and the economy, each of them is needed to thrive. You can’t have one without the other. Therefore, the practice of sustainability recognizes that everything is connected and requires a different approach.” – Emily Leproust, Ph.D., CEO And Co-Founder, Twist Bioscience