Process would be first major advance in nucleic acid synthesis in more than 20 years, and could potentially transform access to genetic information, says Agilent
Agilent Technologies has announced a collaboration with The University of Colorado and Darpa, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, to develop a breakthrough two-step process for the chemical synthesis of nucleic acids.
The US$6.1 million collaboration includes joint funding by Agilent and Darpa and could potentially double the speed of DNA synthesis critical to disease characterisation and drug discovery.
The two-step process would represent the first major breakthrough in the synthesis of nucleic acids in 20 years.
The current approach was developed by Marvin Caruthers and his co-workers at the University of Colorado more than 20 years ago.
Agilent expects the technology to provide significant reductions in the complexity, time required, and cost to manufacture its DNA microarrays.
More broadly, for biomedical researchers and healthcare professionals, the speed and simplicity of this new technology is expected to expand access to genetic information for use in drug discovery and development, as well as prediction, diagnosis and treatment of disease in the laboratory and in the field.
Nucleic acids such as DNA contain the blueprints for all living organisms.
The ability to chemically synthesise nucleic acids is fundamental to the wide range of life science research efforts - from nucleic acid amplification, to sequencing and detection.
The two-step process would simplify the chemistry used to synthesise nucleic acids, reduce the number of synthesis steps from four to two, eliminate most of the highly toxic reagents and solvents used in the current process, and reduce chemical waste by 75%.
Because the technology is simpler than existing technology, it could be potentially faster, more reliable, and more suitable for chip-sized miniaturisation and highly parallel batch processing. A team led by principle investigator Doug Dellinger of Agilent Labs will perform the research in collaboration with Caruthers, a distinguished professor with the University of Colorado's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
By participating in the commercialisation of DNA synthesis in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Caruthers helped fuel the biotechnology revolution, and is considered a pioneer and inventor of the chemistry used for automated DNA synthesis.
"This agreement enables the Labs to pursue alternative solutions to a technological problem which would accelerate the problem-solving process," said Tom Saponas, senior vice president, chief technology officer, and director of Agilent Labs.
"This agreement provides Agilent Labs with the additional funding needed to develop this early-stage invention to the point that it can be transferred to Agilent's life sciences business for incorporation into Agilent's manufacturing processes and future products." The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is the central research and development organisation for the US Department of Defense (DoD).
It manages and directs selected basic and applied research and development projects for the DoD, and pursues research and technology where risk and payoff are both very high and where success may provide dramatic advances for traditional military roles and missions.
