Multi-Partner Collaboration Set to Speed Up Development of Microfluidic Systems for Gene Editing

A multi-partner collaboration between Oxford Genetics, Sphere Fluidics, the University of Edinburgh, and Twist Bioscience has been announced, which will target the acceleration of the development of automated microfluidic systems for rapid and high-throughput gene editing in mammalian cell lines.

According to the terms of the agreement, Sphere Fluidics will be the lead partner, tasked with the production of new products that are designed to meet the requirements of multiplexed gene editing workflows. Input into the industrial and application specific requirements will be provided by Oxford Genetics and the University of Edinburgh, with Twist Bioscience contributing DNA synthesis capabilities and required reagents for the project.

“Gene editing, particularly CRISPR technologies, have revolutionized the way scientists are able to engineer mammalian cells for a wide-variety of applications. While these technologies are highly efficient, there is a requirement to further optimize the way laboratories deliver the CRISPR tools to cells and interrogate the resultant products. By increasing throughput and reducing timelines in this area, this creates new avenues of research and commercial applications, from our ability to address complex genetics in basic biology to utilising big data to facilitate personalised medicine,” said Tom Payne, CSO at Oxford Genetics, in a Feb. 18, 2019 press release.

“This multi-partner collaboration brings together the incredible expertise of different organizations to fuel important and cutting-edge responsible research in the field of gene editing,” commented Emily M. Leproust, PhD, CEO of Twist Bioscience. “CRISPR holds tremendous promise to truly improve health and eliminate disease, and we are thrilled to support the scaling of these combined technologies to work toward improved health worldwide.”

“We are very pleased to join forces with a company of the calibre of Oxford Genetics,” added Frank F. Craig, CEO at Sphere Fluidics. “We plan to develop a desktop system that will miniaturize and automate the genome editing of single cells. This system will enable scientists to easily perform automated genome editing and create new cell lines and valuable biomedical products.” 

Source: Oxford Genetics