Novel synthetic biology technologies presented in Suzhou

FOR the second consecutive year, GenScript sponsored the Cold Spring Harbor Asia Synthetic Biology Symposium held in Suzhou, China. The Nov 26 to 30 symposium convened scientists from all over the world to exchange the latest and most innovative synthetic biology research results. Synthetic biology entails building novel genetic circuits to re-program cells, and has been touted as having great potential in many industrial applications including biofuel, drug, and vaccine production.

As a gene synthesis expert, GenScript presented technical breakthroughs in synthesizing long (>10 kb), complex genes (having high GC content, highly repetitive sequences, complex secondary structures or unstable structural elements), one of the most challenging tasks in synthetic biology research. GenScript recently demonstrated proficiency in long, complex gene synthesis by synthesizing 17 pre-designed chunk fragments (average size: 10 kb each) of yeast chromosome VI, totaling 170 kb. The synthesis was part of the Johns Hopkins University Synthetic Yeast Genome Project, Sc2.0, which aims to build the first functional synthetic eukaryotic genome, totaling 16 Mb. GenScript delivered the chunk fragments to JHU within a short time, and successfully incorporated several pre-designed DNA elements into the sequence such as telomeric repeats and LoxP sites, which are crucial for gene function studies and subsequent genome manipulation. GenScript is the only purely commercial entity to participate in Sc2.0 thus far.

The symposium is just one of the synthetic biology advancement efforts that GenScript supports. GenScript is a long-time sponsor of iGEM, having supported over 20 teams in the collegiate competition. It is also a founding member of the International Gene Synthesis Consortium (IGSC), which seeks to prevent terrorist abuse of synthetic biology technologies. GenScript believes its support of these efforts along with the continued enhancement of its gene synthesis technologies will increase production speed and decrease production price for long, complex genes. Such technological advancements will allow researchers to realize the full potential of synthetic biology faster.