NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Synthetic biology firm Gen9 announced today that it has signed a deal to provide freely available DNA parts to the research community in collaboration with International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition (iGEM).
iGEM is a non-profit organization that runs annual student competitions in synthetic biology. The group also maintains a registry of over 20,000 DNA parts, which are provided to participants in the competitions, as well as to academic labs.
Under the collaboration, Gen9 will use its massively parallel BioFab platform to manufacture new, synthetic versions of the well-documented and highly used DNA parts. The company said that these sequence-verified, clonal constructs will be made available to scientists using iGEM's registry for the design and engineering of new biological systems.
"DNA synthesis and commercial assembly are the future of synthetic biology," Randy Rettberg, president and CEO of the iGEM Foundation, said in a statement, adding that the collaboration with Gen9 "will improve the experience and success of the iGEM teams."