A Conversation with Emily Leproust

ABSTRACT

The availability to synthesize DNA reliably and at low cost is poised to not only disrupt numerous markets, including chemicals/materials, diagnostics, therapeutics, and food, but also significantly improve the sustainability profile of manufacturing. Twist Bioscience— founded in 2013 by Emily Leproust, Bill Banyai, and Bill Peck—has developed a proprietary semiconductor-based synthetic DNA manufacturing process featuring a highthroughput silicon platform that allows it to miniaturize the chemistry necessary for DNA synthesis. This miniaturization reduces reaction volumes by a factor of 1,000,000 while increasing throughput by a factor of 1,000, enabling the synthesis of 9,600 genes on a single silicon chip at full scale. Traditional synthesis methods produce a single gene in the same physical space using a 96-well plate. The company reported 2020 sales of $90.1 million.