Jonny Ohlson, Executive Chairman of Touchlight

The genetic medicine industry is growing rapidly, increasing the demand for DNA at an exponential rate. This need is being driven even higher as more companies focus on manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines and other types of mRNA products.

Synthetic biology has the potential to revolutionize this emerging industry and solve the DNA supply problem for genetic medicine. Recent advances in pure, synthetic DNA from Touchlight in the United Kingdom could be the type of disruptive technology that manufacturers need to scale.

Genetic medicine focuses on using DNA and RNA to deliver therapeutics. Vaccines and other products that rely on mRNA are a growing sector in the synthetic biology industry. These novel therapeutics create the possibility for safer and more effective personalized treatments.

The demand for COVID-19 vaccines has highlighted the importance of mRNA products. mRNA vaccines rely on non-viral vectors for delivery, which means they are faster to manufacture because they can be made through synthetic production.

"We are constantly being challenged by diseases. And we have to find new, efficient and safe ways to vaccinate. Going forward, mRNA vaccines will continue to be important," says Executive Chairman of Touchlight, Jonny Ohlson.

Since genetic medicine and vaccines need DNA for manufacturing, the demand for these key materials is growing. Today, if a new mRNA product goes to market, it could use up 50% of the world's current DNA supply. And there are many mRNA products in different clinical phases that will need even more DNA.

"We are speaking to mRNA manufacturers, and they need kilograms of DNA now," says Ohlson. "Some vaccine makers will need hundreds of kilograms of DNA in the future. We estimate that the world's current supply of DNA is about 3 kilograms per year." A kilogram of DNA may not sound like a lot. But considering that DNA is made up of microscopic molecules, a single kilogram of DNA represents a significant volume.

Traditional DNA manufacturing relies on plasmids and bacterial fermentation. However, this method will no longer be able to meet the supply needs of manufacturers because of its expense and slow turnaround.

A scientist works in the lab at Touchlight where the company can produce up to a kilogram of DNA a ... [+] month.

Synthetic biology offers a solution to help companies obtain significantly larger quantities of DNA. Touchlight's synthetic DNAcalled dbDNA (doggybone DNA)offers unique advantages over both plasmid and other DNA formats."dbDNA can do all the things plasmid DNA can do and a lot more. It's better, cheaper, and faster," says Ohlson.

Manufactured through a completely synthetic process in a cell-free environment, dbDNA is a linear, double-stranded DNA vector. Producing dbDNA is much faster than producing plasmid DNA, taking weeks instead of months. Additionally, the equipment to make dbDNA has a smaller manufacturing footprint than plasmids, so companies can more easily scale production.

Touchlight's dbDNA also has the benefit of being pure DNA, unlike plasmids. When plasmid DNA is amplified, it creates a product with antibiotic resistance genes, origins of replication, and other unwanted pieces. However, Touchlight uses two enzymes to amplify synthetic DNA to scale without any impurities or bacterial sequences.

Unwanted bacterial sequences are a big problem for genetic medicine because they interfere with the goals of the final product, such as a therapeutic having an unexpected immune effect. Pure DNA like dbDNA is safer and eliminates these types of problems.

Touchlight just announced a funding round of 42 million ($60 million) led by Bridford Investments Limited. The company plans to triple its manufacturing space and increase its production of DNA up to 1 kilogram per month by the first quarter of 2022.

The funds will also help the company add 11 new state-of-the-art DNA production suites for a total of 15 and create up to 60 new jobs. However, the company's unique benchtop technology means the total facility footprint will only be 7,500 square feet, which is a fraction of the space needed for plasmid DNA manufacturing.

Genetic medicine looks to be the future of therapeutics. Novel vaccines, cell and gene therapies all have the potential to transform lives. And, as many predict that COVID-19 will not be the last pandemic that requires rapid vaccinations, mRNA vaccines will continue to be of global therapeutic importance. Synthetic biology could hold the key to helping companies scale production of vaccines and other, critical DNA and RNA-based therapies.

Thank you toLana Bandoimfor additional research and reporting in this article. Im the founder of SynBioBeta, and some of the companies that I write about are sponsors of the SynBioBeta conference andweekly digest.

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