Dr. Doudna: RNA synthesis capabilities of Synthego’s team represent a significant leap forward for Synthetic Biology

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Dr. Doudna: RNA synthesis capabilities of Synthego’s team represent a significant leap forward for Synthetic Biology

January 4, 2017 by 2012pharmaceutical

Dr. Doudna: RNA synthesis capabilities of Synthego’s team represent a significant leap forward for Synthetic Biology

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Synthego Raises $41 Million From Investors, Including a Top Biochemist

By MICHAEL J. de la MERCED JAN. 4, 2017

Jennifer Doudna, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley who helped develop advanced gene-editing techniques, is among investors in Synthego.

Synthego also drew in Dr. Doudna, who had crossed paths with the company’s head of synthetic biology at various industry conferences. According to Mr. Dabrowski, the money from her trust represents the single-biggest check from a non-institutional investor that the start-up has raised.

Synthego’s new funds will help the company take its products to a more global customer base, as well as broaden its offerings. The longer-term goal, Mr. Dabrowski said, is to help fully automate biotech research and take care of much of the laboratory work that scientists currently handle themselves.

The model is cloud technology, where companies rent out powerful remote server farms to handle their computing needs rather than rely on their own hardware.

“We’ll be able to do their full research workflow,” he said. “If you look at how cloud computing developed, it used to be that every company handled their server farm. Now it’s all handled in the cloud.”

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