BRIEF—GenScript Biotech expands synthetic biology product portfolio

Hong Kong-based gene synthesis services company Genscript Biotech has entered into an agreement to acquire 100% of the issued shares of privately held CustomArray that provides customized oligonucleotide pools and microarrays to many of the world's leading academic and industrial organizations for applications in targeted sequencing, complex DNA libraries, synthetic biology, shRNA libraries, and CRISPR.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"The acquisition of CustomArray further strengthens our synthetic biology product portfolio with a unique technology that we believe will enhance our customers' ability to accelerate innovation in drug discovery and development, genome editing, protein engineering, and synthetic biology," said GenScript chief executive Frank Zhang.

CustomArray uses semiconductor chip technology to electrochemically synthesize DNA right on the chip surface.

The patented and proprietary technology allows the creation of large numbers of different oligonucleotides in a highly parallel, high-throughput, high-density, and cost-effective manner.

CustomArray, as a market leader in oligonucleotide pools, with one of the world's leading array-based synthesis technologies, strengthens GenScript's leadership in synthetic biology, such as gene synthesis, CRISPR library, shRNA library, enzyme and antibody engineering.