Evonetix Receives Patent for Thermally-Controlled DNA Synthesis Technology

Evonetix, a synthetic biology company, announced that it had been granted patent EP3551331B1 in Europe for its proprietary thermal control technology for DNA synthesis as well as the design and manufacture of its silicon chips. The new approach uses thermal control with semiconductor-based arrays, which are designed to offer greater accuracy and selectivity in both sequence deprotection and mismatching sequence removal.

In contrast to conventional methods that use acid deprotection to control the synthesis cycle, Evonetix intends to exert control through precise, independent control of temperature at thousands of individual synthesis sites across the surface of a silicon chip. According to an April 4, 2022 press release, this thermal control of DNA synthesis enables highly parallel synthesis and the ability to work through sequences that are hard to synthesize through methods such as acid deprotection.

“There is currently an unmet need in the synthetic biology industry for long, accurate, DNA sequences, and the ability to remove errors during assembly allows researchers to achieve longer strands of DNA and run applications such as gene synthesis, [clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats], screening, and protein engineering,” said Matthew Hayes, chief technology officer, Evonetix, in the press release. “Securing this patent to cover our core technology adds further strength to our [intellectual property] portfolio and underlines Evonetix’s position as leaders in our field. Our technology will give researchers the capabilities of service centers in their own lab, accelerating the advancement of synthetic biology and opening new possibilities in this exciting market.”