Agilent Technologies, a New York-listed computer group, has invested $21m in in local synthetic biology start-up Gen9.
Gen9’s previous investors include food maker Kraft Group, venture capital firms Draper Fisher Jurvetson and PBM Capital Group and angel investors, including Scott Schoen, former co-president of buyout firm Thomas H lee, and Weili Dai, fo-founder of Marvell Technology Group.
Gen9’s BioFab platform can synthesize tens of thousands of gene fragments in just a few square feet of laboratory space and it said it would incorporate Agilent’s Oligonucleotide Library Synthesis (OLS) technology into its manufacturing process
Neil Cook, vice-president of Agilent’s Laboratories division, said: “Synthetic DNA constructs have the potential to form the foundation of the next revolution in industrial manufacturing, through biologically constructed machines that can produce materials of high value and complexity.
“This revolution will only be possible through the ability to routinely synthesize and assemble high-quality, error-free DNA at much greater sequence lengths than are currently available.
“Gen9 has the correct strategy, technology, team, and IP [intellectual property] portfolio to complement Agilent’s innovations in oligo library synthesis and, working together, we will help realize the promise of synthetic biology.”
In 2011 Agilent launched a collaborative investment with UC Berkeley’s Synthetic Biology Institute as its first Industry Member. Agilent announced an earlier collaborative investment with Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering in 2010.