Last year, during the Global Synthetic Biology (SynBioBeta) conference, Ansa Biotechnologies’ CEO Jason Gammack introduced attendees to the company’s first product—600 bp synthetic DNA constructs. This week, he and his team were back at SynBioBeta in San Jose, CA, where he announced that the company is now synthesizing up to 50 kb DNA constructs and offered scientists a chance to test the synthetic sequences for themselves as part of an early access program.
In the intervening year, Ansa launched a 5 kb clonal product in November, followed by a 7.5 kb product using its proprietary enzymatic synthesis technology. Going up to 50 kb is “a whole new world for us,” Gammack told attendees at the meeting. DNA products of this length are essential for a wide range of applications in synthetic genomics, metabolic engineering, agricultural research, and next-generation cell and gene therapies. However, Gammack is confident that Ansa’s technology is more than up for the challenge. “Complexity is something that we relish. It’s where we want to operate.”
The 50 kb constructs are already being used by several well-respected scientists as part of a pilot that Ansa launched earlier this year, Through the pilot, Ansa fulfilled orders for about 32 different constructs that ranged 13 to 48 kb long. One customer for the longer 40+ kb constructs was the laboratory of George Church, PhD, professor at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Another pilot participant was Jay Shendure, PhD, a professor in the department of genome sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine. His lab used some of Ansa’s synthetic DNA in their work on genetic recorders, which are designed to capture cellular events in mammalian cells.
Now, a broader group of scientists will have a chance to test out Ansa’s long, complex constructs for themselves before it goes on the market. They will be able to order large constructs ranging from 7.5 kb all the way up to 50 kb that will be synthesized using Ansa’s commercial manufacturing process. In a conversation with GEN, Gammack said that Ansa does not have a set number of participants planned for the program, but he anticipates that the company will likely work with on the order of two dozen participants and that it will prioritize current customers.
Ansa is keeping an open mind regarding the types of orders that early access participants can make. Besides the length of the DNA, Gammack is particularly interested in seeing the types of sequences that participants request, and the level of complexity. “Honestly, I don’t think customers really care too much about technology,” rather, “they care about what that technology enables and the application that we’re bringing forward,” he said. For Ansa’s part, “we’re interested in what these new types of constructs open up from an application perspective. That to me is really where the magic happens.”
Like its shorter constructs, the 50 kb offering will be subject to the Ansa-On-Time guarantee. When they place their orders, customers receive a ship date, and if Ansa fails to ship the constructs on that date, Ansa sends the entire order to the customer at no charge. The anticipated turnaround time for longer constructs is around 25 days, but that could change as Ansa further optimizes its commercial manufacturing processes, Gammack said. And insights from the early access program could help with that.
Another benefit of the early access testing is the opportunity for Ansa to gauge the community’s appetite for long, complex DNA. “I want to understand how we are helping them,” Gammack told GEN. “Where is the value being generated in this process now that you don’t have to spend this time at the bench doing these assemblies and verifying them? And what new spaces are opening up because of that?” He expects that some entrants into the program will have unique synthesis requests that will give Ansa a chance to further hone its platform and capabilities.
The early access program will run until the third quarter of 2025. Ansa plans to begin offering 50 kb constructs as a commercial product by the end of the year.
The post Ansa Biotechnologies Rolls Out Early Access Program for Long, Complex Synthetic DNA Orders appeared first on GEN - Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.
In the intervening year, Ansa launched a 5 kb clonal product in November, followed by a 7.5 kb product using its proprietary enzymatic synthesis technology. Going up to 50 kb is “a whole new world for us,” Gammack told attendees at the meeting. DNA products of this length are essential for a wide range of applications in synthetic genomics, metabolic engineering, agricultural research, and next-generation cell and gene therapies. However, Gammack is confident that Ansa’s technology is more than up for the challenge. “Complexity is something that we relish. It’s where we want to operate.”
The 50 kb constructs are already being used by several well-respected scientists as part of a pilot that Ansa launched earlier this year, Through the pilot, Ansa fulfilled orders for about 32 different constructs that ranged 13 to 48 kb long. One customer for the longer 40+ kb constructs was the laboratory of George Church, PhD, professor at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Another pilot participant was Jay Shendure, PhD, a professor in the department of genome sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine. His lab used some of Ansa’s synthetic DNA in their work on genetic recorders, which are designed to capture cellular events in mammalian cells.
Now, a broader group of scientists will have a chance to test out Ansa’s long, complex constructs for themselves before it goes on the market. They will be able to order large constructs ranging from 7.5 kb all the way up to 50 kb that will be synthesized using Ansa’s commercial manufacturing process. In a conversation with GEN, Gammack said that Ansa does not have a set number of participants planned for the program, but he anticipates that the company will likely work with on the order of two dozen participants and that it will prioritize current customers.
Ansa is keeping an open mind regarding the types of orders that early access participants can make. Besides the length of the DNA, Gammack is particularly interested in seeing the types of sequences that participants request, and the level of complexity. “Honestly, I don’t think customers really care too much about technology,” rather, “they care about what that technology enables and the application that we’re bringing forward,” he said. For Ansa’s part, “we’re interested in what these new types of constructs open up from an application perspective. That to me is really where the magic happens.”
Like its shorter constructs, the 50 kb offering will be subject to the Ansa-On-Time guarantee. When they place their orders, customers receive a ship date, and if Ansa fails to ship the constructs on that date, Ansa sends the entire order to the customer at no charge. The anticipated turnaround time for longer constructs is around 25 days, but that could change as Ansa further optimizes its commercial manufacturing processes, Gammack said. And insights from the early access program could help with that.
Another benefit of the early access testing is the opportunity for Ansa to gauge the community’s appetite for long, complex DNA. “I want to understand how we are helping them,” Gammack told GEN. “Where is the value being generated in this process now that you don’t have to spend this time at the bench doing these assemblies and verifying them? And what new spaces are opening up because of that?” He expects that some entrants into the program will have unique synthesis requests that will give Ansa a chance to further hone its platform and capabilities.
The early access program will run until the third quarter of 2025. Ansa plans to begin offering 50 kb constructs as a commercial product by the end of the year.
The post Ansa Biotechnologies Rolls Out Early Access Program for Long, Complex Synthetic DNA Orders appeared first on GEN - Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.