Twist Bioscience Announces Synthetic RNA Positive Controls for SARS-CoV-2 Encapsulated in Imagene’s Stainless Steel Capsules

Twist Bioscience Corporation announced specific synthetic RNA positive controls for SARS-CoV-2 encapsulated in proprietary stainless steel minicapsules provided by Imagene SA.

The airtight minicapsules provide a stable environment for the RNA controls, allowing cost-effective shipping and storage at room temperature of fragile RNA for an extended period. In particular, Twist believe this product enhancement will enable the company to serve customers in regions that do not have an effective cold chain system or easy access to cold storage and also may allow the use of the controls in point of care settings.

Stainless steel minicapsule

“The global COVID-19 pandemic remains a threat in many parts of the world, particularly those countries that have not had access to sufficient quantities of vaccine. In these, and in fact, in all regions of the world, the SARS-CoV-2 virus is fully established and is still a threat to large populations,” said Emily M. Leproust, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder, Twist. “Our synthetic RNA controls help identify, test for, and track SARS-CoV-2 variants. With these new encapsulated versions, we now have the ability to ship and store anywhere in the world, serving every community with a more cost-effective, longer-term solution to help monitor and control this ongoing crisis.”

This is an expansion of the company first agreement with Imagene in July 2019 to use its DNAshell technology for the long-term storage of digital data encoded in DNA, with the DNA remaining stable for thousands of years. Using this encapsulation technology, Twist now has the ability to ship and store both DNA and RNA products anywhere in the world for long periods of time. Stable shipping and storage is particularly important for inherently unstable molecules such as RNA which rapidly breaks down at room temperature and typically requires cold storage at temperatures of -80°C. Maintaining this temperature requires specialized equipment with energy requirements.

“Twist understands the value of our microcapsules for nucleic acids long term storage. This is particularly true for the fragile RNA molecules,” commented Sophie Tuffet, Ph.D., CEO and chairman, Imagene. “Imagene’s and Twist technologies meet the needs of diagnostic laboratories to have stable and standardized reference materials. In particular, RNAshell provides a reliable packaging with an unparalleled guarantee of stability. It also offers the possibility of single use. The ability to store nucleic acids at room temperature without energy requirement provides tremendous benefit for applications like data storage or pandemic response and we look forward to an active relationship with Twist on both fronts.”

The company’s synthetic controls are designed based on specific SARS-CoV-2 variants, cover the full viral genome and are sequence-verified. For customers interested in alternative variants of SARS-CoV-2, or synthetic RNA or DNA controls for other sequences, the firm can provide custom controls in multiple formats. Twist also offers a suite of research tools, including next-gen sequencing (NGS) products for SARS-CoV-2 as well as a broad respiratory panel and a comprehensive viral panel.

Customers purchasing synthetic controls are subject to the company’s biosecurity screening protocols and applicable laws and regulations.