Twist Bioscience Signs Collaboration with Artisan Bio to Engineer Next Generation Cell Therapeutics

January 25, 2022 |

5 min read

Twist Bioscience Corporation and Artisan Development Labs Inc. today announced a collaboration to discover novel antibodies against five undisclosed targets.

Jan. 25, 2022 13:00 UTC

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ: TWST), a company enabling customers to succeed through its offering of high-quality synthetic DNA using its silicon platform, and Artisan Development Labs Inc. (DBA Artisan Bio), an immune cell engineering company developing next-generation cell therapies, today announced a collaboration to discover novel antibodies against five undisclosed targets, with an option to expand with additional targets.

Under the terms of the collaboration, Twist will leverage its proprietary Library of Libraries to discover novel antibodies directed against Artisan’s immunotherapy targets. Artisan will leverage its Immune Cell Engineering Foundry and STAR Guides to develop custom cell therapeutics. Twist will receive upfront technology access and project fees for each program, success-based clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones, as well as royalties on product sales.

“Twist’s novel and diverse libraries provide access to a wide range of unbiased antibodies. We look forward to bringing together the massively parallel DNA synthesis platform of Twist with our own massively parallel cell engineering platform to develop the next generation of cell therapeutics,” said Ryan T. Gill, Ph.D., CEO of Artisan Bio.

“CRISPR presents a myriad of opportunities to revolutionize human health. Artisan has a unique approach that combines a deep understanding of this gene-editing technology with advanced AI analysis,” commented Emily M. Leproust, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Twist Bioscience. “Our collaboration with Artisan will leverage our innovative antibody discovery capabilities to help translate this cutting-edge approach into novel cell therapies.”

About Artisan Bio
Artisan’s vision is to design, build, and deliver cells and precision engineering processes that advance cellular therapies across a broad range of human health indications. The company’s cell engineering and data analysis foundry enables the generation of safer and more efficacious cell therapies. By engaging in strategic collaborations with innovative partners, Artisan seeks to deliver customizable cell engineering solutions that meet the complexities associated with next-generation cell therapies. Artisan has offices in Denver, Colorado and Toronto, Canada. For more information, please visit http://artisancells.com/.

About Twist Bioscience Corporation
Twist Bioscience is a leading and rapidly growing synthetic biology and genomics 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, including but not limited to the ability of the collaboration to discover novel antibodies against current and future targets and the achievement of any clinical, regulatory or commercial milestones, 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; the retention of employees of acquired companies and the ability of Twist Bioscience to successfully integrate acquired companies and to achieve expected benefits, 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 Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on November 23, 2021 and subsequent filings with the SEC. 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.