Twist Bioscience Announces Strategic Collaboration With Schrödinger for Drug Discovery

January 15, 2020 |

4 min read

Under the terms of the agreement, each company will contribute their individual expertise in a highly collaborative manner to discover novel antibody therapeutics

Jan. 15, 2020 13:00 UTC

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ: TWST), a company enabling customers to succeed through its offering of high-quality synthetic DNA using its silicon platform, announced today a collaboration with Schrödinger Inc., a company focused on transforming the way therapeutics are discovered with a physics-based computational platform, to bring the two companies’ technology platforms together to discover new antibody therapeutics against G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) targets.

Under the terms of the agreement, each company will contribute their individual expertise in a highly collaborative manner to discover novel antibody therapeutics. Specifically, Schrödinger will use its proprietary physics-based computational platform to model functional antibody segments that bind to a particular GPCR receptor. Twist Biopharma, a division of Twist Bioscience, will then use its silicon-based DNA synthesis platform to generate a large number of precisely defined antibody sequences that can then be taken into proof-of-concept and preclinical development. The companies will collaborate on any commercial opportunities generated by the work together.

“This collaboration brings together two very important areas of drug discovery technology,” said Robert Abel, Ph.D., Schrödinger’s Executive Vice President of Science. “Our physics-based platform enables detailed modeling of protein peptide interactions. Twist can then deploy its technology to incorporate such peptides into an antibody scaffold. Together, we believe we will be able to break new ground in antibody discovery and deliver next-generation therapeutics.”

“Through our internal efforts and key partnerships, we continue to expand our drug discovery capabilities,” commented Emily M. Leproust, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Twist Bioscience. “We started the company by offering our customers synthetic DNA in the form of genes and fragments, expanded our offering to take our synthetic DNA and elevate next-generation sequencing preparations, and now we are focused on leveraging our platform into antibody discovery. This partnership with Schrödinger builds on our strong foundation to further expand the benefit of our silicon-based DNA platform into therapeutics utilizing modeling.”

About Twist Bioscience Corporation

Twist Bioscience is a leading and rapidly growing synthetic biology company that has developed a disruptive DNA synthesis platform to industrialize the engineering of biology. The core of the platform is a proprietary technology that pioneers a new method of manufacturing synthetic DNA by “writing” DNA on a silicon chip. Twist is leveraging its unique technology to manufacture a broad range of synthetic DNA-based products, including synthetic genes, tools for next-generation sequencing (NGS) preparation, and antibody libraries for drug discovery and development. Twist is also pursuing longer-term opportunities in digital data storage in DNA and biologics drug discovery. Twist makes products for use across many industries including healthcare, industrial chemicals, agriculture and academic research.

Legal Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained herein are forward-looking statements reflecting the current beliefs and expectations of management made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other important factors that may cause Twist Bioscience’s actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, the risks and uncertainties of the ability to attract new customers and retain and grow sales from existing customers; risks and uncertainties of rapidly changing technologies and extensive competition in synthetic biology could make the products Twist Bioscience is developing obsolete or non-competitive; uncertainties of the retention of a significant customer; risks of third party claims alleging infringement of patents and proprietary rights or seeking to invalidate Twist Bioscience’s patents or proprietary rights; and the risk that Twist Bioscience’s proprietary rights may be insufficient to protect its technologies. For a further description of the risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those expressed in these forward-looking statements, as well as risks relating to Twist Bioscience’s business in general, see Twist Bioscience’s risk factors set forth in Twist Bioscience’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on December 13, 2019. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date hereof, and Twist Bioscience specifically disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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