Cambridge Consultants to develop custom DNA at lightning speeds

Automating DNA assembly to drive forward the engineering of biology and unlock new applications

Product design and development firm Cambridge Consultants and SGI-DNA, a Synthetic Genomics Inc. company in San Diego, CA, USA, today announce that they will be installing the first BioXp™ 3200 System in the UK. The implementation will drive forward the use of automation in the emerging fields of biodesign and synthetic biology.

The BioXp™ 3200 System is the world’s first benchtop automated genomic workstation that rapidly synthesizes high-quality, double-stranded DNA fragments and clones into any vector in an overnight run.

Cambridge Consultants is an early leader in the fast-emerging synthetic biology sector. With its in-house facilities, delivering rapid turnaround and innovative products, the BioXp™ 3200 System is a natural fit for the laboratory workflow and has numerous applications, including protein production, antibody library generation, and cell engineering.

As well as medical breakthroughs, this could also unlock a whole host of novel applications in areas such as consumer products, novel foods and biofuels.

Biodesign has wide-ranging impact and is dependent on the speed and efficiency of generating and analyzing genes. Cambridge Consultants is working with a variety of companies to help improve the systems and equipment used in biodesign; the BioXp™ 3200 System will help researchers in pursuit of solving these challenges.

Richard Hammond, head of synthetic biology at Cambridge Consultants said­­, “We believe that the future of biodesign lies in automating processes and in turn increasing experimental throughput and reducing the time needed to develop new products. SGI-DNA shares this philosophy, and the BioXp™ 3200 instrument is a great example of this approach benefitting the synthetic biology community.”

SGI-DNA President Nathan Wood said, “The future of scientific advancement is automation. By installing the BioXp™ 3200 System at Cambridge Consultants’ innovative and world-class laboratories, more groups in Europe can benefit from custom DNA projects.”