Last month, leaders in the fields of protein engineering and synthetic biology met at the campus of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, for the 3rd Protein Engineering Canada (PEC) Conference 2018. The PEC Conference encourages the exchange of ideas and aims to build collaborations in an engaging atmosphere by bringing together students, young investigators, and protein engineering experts. SGI-DNA was a proud contributor to the conference and hosted a lunch seminar entitled “Emerging Technologies: Library Construction using the BioXp™ 3200 System,” presented by Steve R ..read more

You’re familiar with our synthetic biology solutions and services. Now we’d like to introduce you to the faces behind our innovative products, the people dedicated to building next-generation synthetic biology tools to advance your research. First off in this new “Meet SGI-DNA” blog series is Rahul Gautam, Customer Success Manager, Synthetic Biology. Of course, we’re biased, but we think Rahul is pretty extraordinary. He’s one of the most well-liked, personable members of the SGI-DNA team and he’s a dedicated leader, who strives to ensure customer success. We recently sat down with Rahul and ..read more

This week, leading researchers and professionals will gather for the annual American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy meeting in Chicago. At this highly anticipated event, researchers will present research and clinical data with the latest advancements in genetic and cellular therapies. SGI-DNA is excited to participate in this prominent and influential gathering. Sr. Product Manager, Dr. Michael Sturges will present: “cGMP Synthetic Gene Synthesis to Enable Precision Medicine” (poster #320) on Wednesday, May 16 at 5:30 pm.   Personalized medicines (or precision medicines) cons ..read more

2017 has been another milestone year, witnessing the expansion of therapeutics-based platforms & services offered by Synthetic Genomics (SGI) and SGI-DNA. Some highlights from the past year include: Paving the Way for Rapid Precision Medicine This past June, SGI-DNA added custom, on-demand current good manufacturingpractice (cGMP) gene synthesis, custom cloning, and DNA scale-up for clinical applications to the genomic services offering. The inaugural use of this state of the art cGMP laboratory is for Advaxis, a clinical-stage biotechnology company, and its upcoming Phase 1 clinical t ..read more

Jake Becraft, Graduate Student in Ron Weiss Laboratory at MIT “I work with repetitive DNA sequences that are incompatible with routine DNA fragment synthesis services. The BioXp™ System allows me to quickly build these complex fragments, with high fidelity, at my bench.” Jake Becraft used the BioXp™ System to build complex DNA fragments needed for his RNA binding study.  Background The Weiss lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has successfully created a variety of biological circuits involving RNA binding proteins. To investigate the specific binding ..read more

In 2013, J. Craig Venter and Dan Gibson, in collaboration with Novartis, published a reportin Science employing synthetic biology methods to rapidly accelerate the production of the flu vaccine. The methods described and implemented by the team demonstrated how to reduce flu vaccine production from months to just days. Yet, Venter and Gibson imagined there were ways to accelerate vaccine production even further, and so the idea of the digital-to-biological converter (DBC) was born. Fast forward to May 2017, the DBC concept is now a reality as Kent Boles and Krishna Kannan and Synthetic Genomic ..read more

Introduction Genome-modification technologies, including creating minimal synthetic genomes, gene editing through directed nucleases, such as CRISPR-Cas9 and genome recoding, offer targeted rational design and engineering at the whole organism level. Genome recoding (systematically altering targeted sense codons throughout a genome or defined genome section) is an important emerging synthetic biology field with many potential applications. Objectives of genome recoding include protein engineering with nonstandard amino acids; retooling organisms to generate bio-based pharmaceuticals, nutritio ..read more

With spring right around the corner, we're in a time of transformation. So, it seems like a fitting time to discuss another kind of transformation -- transformation of Gibson Assembly® constructs. As all researchers know, transformation is a critical step in all cloning and assembly reactions. Here, we’d like to take a moment to address some of the ways you can maximize success. Tips for Transformation Since Gibson Assembly® cloning has the capability to assemble multiple fragments simultaneously resulting in complex assemblies, it is especially important to use high efficiency competent cel ..read more

With 2017 fully under way, researchers around the world are taking a hard look at their ambitious milestones. How can we improve our processes? How can we meet our time-sensitive deadlines? Offering a multitude of solutions, SGI-DNA seeks to address those questions with the following list of new and innovative products. 7 Innovative Products From SGI-DNA That Could Change Your Workflow   Cell Lines   Vmax™ Express enables the production of significantly more recombinant protein (up to 4X), a full day faster than E.coli protein expression systems. Syn2.0™ Minimal Synthetic C ..read more

Using the Gibson Assembly® method to introduce overhangs and insertions In the Gibson Assembly® Cloning Guideand our last blog post, we introduced a variation of the Gibson Assembly® method that does not rely on the use of homologous overlapping ends for fragment assembly. This technique, Gibson Assembly® PBnJ™ Cloning, has many potential applications. Here, we’d like to focus on two of these, adding DNA overhangs and insertions. Creating overhangs To create a 3’ overhang, simply design a primer containing the intended overhang sequence. To protect the primer from chew-back during the as ..read more