London UK, November 5th 2015: Desktop Genetics Ltd (“DTG” or “the Company”) a software company revolutionizing the way biologists use CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology, announced today that it has signed a partnership agreement with Transcriptic Inc, (Transcriptic), a California based robotic cloud laboratory for Life Sciences.
The partnership, announced at the SynBioBeta conference, will combine DTG’s CRISPR/Cas9 design software with Transcriptic’s services for cloud-based, high throughput cloning of CRISPR constructs, which will enable to companies to provide customers with seamless “CRISPR gene editing on-demand”. From today, researchers in industry and academia will be able to benefit from access to the integrated offering, which aims to eliminate time-intensive manual steps involved in the gene editing process to reduce the complexity, costs and time required to modify any gene in any organism or cell line.
Under the terms of the agreement, DTG will provide proprietary, high-performance CRISPR library design algorithms from the DESKGEN gene-editing platform, while Transcriptic will conduct the automated, high-throughput assembly of the CRISPR libraries using their self-contained robotic molecular biology labs, known as Workcells. Through a simple web browser interface, customers will have full input on experimental design parameters and will effectively eliminate several time-intensive manual steps involved in the gene editing process.
Riley Doyle, CEO of Desktop Genetics, commented: “Most labs are limited to an output of around eight cell lines per year. This partnership will allow our customers to scale their research by orders of magnitude by addressing several key bottlenecks, namely the enormous up-front capital expenditure required to set up high-throughput genome editing facilities, and an onerous CRISPR design process. I am also tremendously excited about optimizing our CRISPR/Cas9 design rules by generating the extensive and sufficiently consistent datasets required to employ our machine learning approaches.”
Yvonne Linney, COO of Transcriptic, commented: “Combining our workflows with DTG will offer the fastest method of progressing from sequence design to high throughput molecular biology. By removing human error from tedious cloning steps at the bench, researchers will benefit from unmatched reproducibility which in turn will increase the efficiency in downstream cellular analysis.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
Media Contacts:
Lorna Cuddon, Zyme Communications
Tel: +44 (0)7811 996 942
E-Mail: lorna.cuddon@zymecommunications.com
At Desktop Genetics:
Victor B Dillard, COO and Founder
E-Mail: victord@desktopgenetics.com
At Transcriptic;
Yvonne Linney, COO of Transcriptic Inc
Email: yvonne@transcriptic.com
About Desktop Genetics, Ltd www.deskgen.com
Desktop Genetics develops technologies at the intersection of biotechnology, software and laboratory automation.
The company is staffed by molecular biologists and computer scientists and has developed the DESKGEN platform, an intuitive and powerful system that supports the optimal design, construction, management, and purchase of the DNA, reagents and services important in gene editing and molecular biology.
Through its platform, the company is enabling “literal Desktop Genetics”, a process that researchers can use to design CRISPR gene editing experiments, purchase reagents and find commercial entities to execute those experiments - and obtain results - without them having their own specialist laboratories.
The Company is currently working with several recognized leaders in the gene editing field, including Editas Medicine, Horizon Discovery and enEvolv.
About Transcriptic Inc www.transcriptic.com
Transcriptic is the robotic cloud laboratory for life sciences. Transcriptic’s revolutionary, automated cellular and molecular biology platform enables scalable life science research with flexibility and precision. The convenient and simple web interface allows biologists to control their science and generate data from virtually anywhere in the world. Transcriptic frees researchers to focus on the creative aspects of their science by providing faster, more reliable and repeatable processes with vastly lower capital costs than previously possible.
Transcriptic’s investors include IA Ventures, Google Ventures, Data Collective, AME Cloud Ventures, Founders Fund, Naval Ravikant, and Mark Cuban, among others.