SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.—Twist Bioscience Corporation has announced a partnership with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited for access to proprietary phage display libraries for the discovery, validation and optimization of antibodies in Takeda’s pipeline of biologics for oncology, rare diseases, neuroscience and gastroenterology.
“Twist’s unique ability to generate robust, diverse and cutting-edge libraries through its proprietary silicon platform, together with our deep insight into therapeutic drug discovery and development, will help us expand a growing pipeline of targeted biologic candidates,” said Robert Mabry, head of Global Biologics Research at Takeda.
Under the terms of the agreement, Twist Biopharma — a division of Twist Bioscience — will license to Takeda its “Library of Libraries,” a panel of synthetic antibody phage display libraries derived only from sequences which exist in the human body. The companies will work together to discover, validate and optimize new antibody candidates. In return, Takeda will pay Twist annual technology licensing fees, as well as milestones and royalties for all compounds discovered from the Twist phage display libraries.
“We look forward to applying our unique ability to generate robust, diverse and cutting-edge libraries together with Takeda’s deep insight into therapeutic drug discovery and development to truly forge new frontiers in bringing personalized therapies to patients worldwide,” added Emily M. Leproust, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Twist Bioscience.
Twist Bioscience has also recently added to its portfolio four new synthetic SARS-CoV-2 RNA Controls for the development, verification and ongoing validation of diagnostic tests. The controls include new variants of SARS-CoV-2, including common mutations found in varying global geographical regions.
In March, Twist launched two fully synthetic SARS-CoV-2 RNA distinct reference sequences as positive controls for the development of both next-generation sequencing (NGS) and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assays to test for SARS-CoV-2. These controls are included in many different assays worldwide, and can be used to determine the limit of detection, monitor day-to-day test variations and are included on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) website as reference materials for SARS-CoV-2.
“The COVID-19 global pandemic has led to the unprecedented need for diagnostic tests for detecting the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in a variety of sample types, with an incredible demand for high quality tools that keep researchers safe,” noted Emily M. Leproust, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Twist Bioscience, in a press release. “Initially, we offered synthetic controls to cover the two primary variants of SARS-CoV-2 (MT007544.1 and MN908947.3), and as the virus has evolved, we are expanding our library of available RNA positive controls to include several more subtypes to continue to facilitate the continued escalation of testing capabilities worldwide.”
The Twist synthetic controls are designed based on specific SARS-CoV-2 variants. They cover the full viral genome and are sequence-verified. For customers interested in alternative variants of SARS-CoV-2, Twist can provide custom controls. The company also plans to launch additional positive controls to continue to address the evolution of the virus and ongoing testing requirements, as states and countries begin to re-open.
