Twist Bioscience Signs Two Biopharma Technology Agreements to Enable Novel Therapeutics Discovery

- Serotiny Agreement to Discover Novel Chimeric Antigen Receptors T-Cell Therapies -

- Partners with Applied StemCell for TARGATT™ CHO Cell Technology -

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--#DNA--Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ: TWST), a company enabling customers to succeed through its offering of high-quality synthetic DNA using its silicon platform, today announced that its Twist Biopharma division has signed two licensing agreements with Serotiny and Applied StemCell. In collaboration with Serotiny, Twist Biopharma aims to discover novel Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CAR) for CAR T-Cell therapies. The agreement with Applied StemCell, covers the use of its TARGATT™ CHO Cell Technology. Both agreements support and expand Twist Biopharma’s capabilities for the discovery of novel antibody therapeutics.

“Twist continues to explore new applications for our technology, which, in particular, have the ability to support and accelerate the discovery and optimization of novel antibody therapeutics,” said Emily M. Leproust, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Twist Bioscience. “Combining our discovery platform with Serotiny’s core software engineering and high throughput assay platform has the potential to shift the paradigm of CAR-T development, ultimately addressing difficult-to-treat cancers head-on. Our agreement with Applied StemCell enables us to develop a mammalian display platform, which will enhance our ability to screen millions of antibody clones for specific binding affinity and other characteristics.”

“Serotiny is excited to collaborate with Twist Biopharma to discover CARs having improved therapeutic outcomes,” said Colin Farlow, CEO and cofounder of Serotiny. “We believe that Twist’s expertise building DNA libraries paired with Serotiny’s multi-domain protein engineering technology enables an increased experimental throughput that opens new opportunities for discovery in cell therapies.”

Under the terms of the Serotiny agreement, Twist Biopharma will provide Serotiny with custom DNA libraries that encode CARs exploring novel combinations of receptor domains including receptor signaling domains. Serotiny will then engineer and characterize unique CARs on a large scale to screen for receptor designs with improved therapeutic properties that may be applicable to a wide range of solid tumors. Twist will have the right to license the technology resulting from the collaboration.

“Following the positive results from pilot studies, we are extremely excited and encouraged by the adoption of our TARGATT™ CHO cell technology by Twist,” commented Ruby Tsai, CEO and co-founder of ASC. “We will continue our effort to deliver a next-generation platform that is suitable for biotherapeutic production.”

Under the Applied StemCell collaboration, Twist will add TARGATT™ CHO cell lines to screen, select and characterize any novel antibodies discovered for its partnered and internal programs, a critical process in developing human therapeutics.

About Serotiny, Inc.
Serotiny is a synthetic biology company engineering multi-domain protein systems for cell therapies including Chimeric Antigen Receptors for CAR T-Cell therapies, Chimeric Antigen Receptor alternatives, and accessory proteins. The core of Serotiny's technology is a platform that couples intelligent protein design software with innovative high-throughput assays, enabling Serotiny to discover novel cell therapies at an unprecedented scale.

About Applied StemCell, Inc.
Applied StemCell, Inc. (ASC) is a leading gene editing and stem cell therapy CRO company founded in 2008 in Milpitas, California. ASC supports gene editing and stem cell therapy development processes with two high-impact platforms: CRISPR and TARGATT™ genome editing and stem cell technologies. ASC’s proprietary TARGATT™ technology enables site-specific, stable integration of large DNA fragments into a safe harbor locus more efficiently and faster, with guaranteed transgene expression without the disruption of internal genes and gene silencing. ASC licenses its TARGATT™ CHO, HEK293, and iPSC cell technology to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and gene/cell therapeutic companies. For further information on the TARGATT™ technology, please visit: www.appliedstemcell.com.

About Twist Bioscience Corporation

Twist Bioscience is a leading and rapidly growing synthetic biology and genomics company that has developed a disruptive DNA synthesis platform to industrialize the engineering of biology. The core of the platform is a proprietary technology that pioneers a new method of manufacturing synthetic DNA by “writing” DNA on a silicon chip. Twist is leveraging its unique technology to manufacture a broad range of synthetic DNA-based products, including synthetic genes, tools for next-generation sequencing (NGS) preparation, and antibody libraries for drug discovery and development. Twist is also pursuing longer-term opportunities in digital data storage in DNA and biologics drug discovery. Twist makes products for use across many industries including healthcare, industrial chemicals, agriculture and academic research.

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Legal Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained herein, including without limitation statements regarding the ability of the two biopharma technology agreements to support and accelerate the discovery and optimization of novel antibody therapeutics, ability of the collaboration with Serotiny to shift the paradigm of CAR-T development and ultimately address difficult-to-treat cancers head-on, and the collaboration with Applied StemCell to enhance Twist’s ability to screen millions of antibody clones for specific binding affinity and other characteristics, are forward-looking statements reflecting the current beliefs and expectations of management made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other important factors that may cause Twist Bioscience’s actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, the risks and uncertainties set forth in Twist Bioscience’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on November 27, 2020, the preliminary prospectus supplement related to the public offering and subsequent filings with the SEC. Any of these risks and uncertainties could materially and adversely affect Twist Bioscience’s results of operations, which would, in turn, have a significant and adverse impact on Twist Bioscience’s stock price. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date hereof, and Twist Bioscience specifically disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Twist Bioscience Contact:
Angela Bitting
925- 202-6211
media@twistbioscience.com