Twist Bioscience

About

Twist Bioscience, founded in 2013 in South San Francisco, California, has revolutionized DNA synthesis through its innovative silicon-based nanoscale manufacturing platform. Trading on NASDAQ under ticker TWST, the company employs 500-1000 people and represents a convergence of semiconductor nanotechnology and synthetic biology. Twist's proprietary synthesis platform miniaturizes traditional DNA synthesis chemistry onto silicon chips using semiconductor photolithography and nanofabrication techniques, enabling massively parallel synthesis of oligonucleotides in nanoscale wells. This breakthrough reduces reagent consumption by over 1000-fold compared to conventional column-based synthesis while dramatically increasing throughput and reducing costs. The silicon-based approach allows Twist to synthesize millions of distinct DNA sequences simultaneously on a single chip, with each synthesis occurring in nanoliter or picoliter reaction volumes. The company's core products include custom synthetic genes, gene fragments, oligonucleotide pools, and next-generation sequencing libraries used in drug discovery, agricultural biotechnology, industrial chemicals production, and academic research. Twist has pioneered applications in DNA data storage, leveraging the massive information density of DNA molecules to archive digital data at nanoscale dimensions, with potential to revolutionize long-term data storage. The platform enables rapid design-build-test cycles for synthetic biology applications, accelerating development of therapeutic antibodies, enzymes, and novel biomolecules. Twist's nanotechnology-enabled manufacturing approach addresses the growing demand for synthetic DNA across biotechnology sectors, supporting applications from CRISPR gene editing to vaccine development. The company's success demonstrates how semiconductor nanofabrication techniques can transform biological manufacturing, creating a scalable, high-precision platform for the programmable synthesis of genetic material. As synthetic biology continues to expand, Twist's nanomanufacturing capabilities position it as critical infrastructure for biotechnology innovation, enabling researchers and companies worldwide to access high-quality synthetic DNA quickly and affordably.