Project description
Custom DNA production on demand
Many genomics and life science applications from PCR to production of vaccines require custom-made oligonucleotides. Traditional DNA synthesis methods use organic chemistry, which present bottlenecks with respect to labour intensity and the length of the generated DNA molecules. The enzymatic DNA synthesis process developed by the EU-funded Rosalind project is inspired by nature and avoids the use of toxic reagents. It aims at improving both speed and efficiency of DNA synthesis, generating long DNA molecules in a high-fidelity manner. The ultimate goal is to generate a benchtop DNA printer, unlocking this novel DNA synthesis technology to the scientific community.
Objective
DNA Script is a biotech company founded in 2014, developing an enzymatic process for DNA synthesis, i.e. manufacturing DNA. Creating DNA is crucial for R&D in numerous fields of synthetic biology which tackle essential societal issues: climate change thanks to the production of bioproduced materials, healthcare with new biotherapies - especially against cancer, or food security using better strains of plants. Synthesis is also an essential step towards of DNA data storage.
All these applications form the long-awaited synthetic biology revolution, and all rely on the capability to efficiently write life code to engineer biological systems. Current DNA synthesis methods are the major bottleneck. The enzymatic process developed by DNA Script, inspired by Nature, aims at improving both speed and efficiency by orders of magnitude. Avoiding the use of toxic reagents, this process will also contribute to a lower environmental footprint for this industry, as well as for its downstream applications.
DNA Script’s technological performances in the lab are 3 to 6 months away to overcome current offer. Project Rosalind will accelerate industrial scale-up of DNA Script’s production capability and performances. By developing extensive knowledge in DNA applications and structuring the company’s strategic and commercialization capabilities, Project Rosalind will also help DNA Script go commercial.
Enabling technologies such as DNA synthesis have tremendous impact on an ecosystem by accelerating R&D and industrialization cycles of its customer. The project will have a positive impact on the European biotech environment, and potentially trigger the emergence of European biotech leaders. Ultimately, through the numerous applications of synthetic DNA, it will benefit all European citizens.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesnucleic acids
- natural sciencesbiological sciencessynthetic biology
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticsDNA
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencesnutrition
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Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2Coordinator
94270 Le Kremlin-Bicetre
France
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.