Twist Bioscience and Watchmaker Genomics Announce Partnership to Drive New Applications of High-throughput Genetic Sequencing

Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ: TWST), a company enabling customers to succeed through its offering of high-quality synthetic DNA using its silicon platform, and Watchmaker Genomics today announced a broad partnership to enable innovative research across a wide range of high throughput sequencing applications including oncology and tumor profiling, inherited disease detection, liquid biopsy assays, and minimal residual disease monitoring.

In their first product offering together, Twist will leverage Watchmaker’s expertise in enzyme engineering by incorporating the company’s high-fidelity library amplification master mix into Twist’s enzymatic library preparation kit, providing a superior solution that can be accessed from Twist as a single source.

“With our eye squarely on working in service of our customers, this partnership brings together two teams relentlessly focused on innovation and execution to provide superior products,” said Emily M. Leproust, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Twist Bioscience. “By pairing superior enzymes with best-in-class DNA, we expect to offer differentiated products that simplify and streamline workflows before putting samples on the sequencer.”

“This is the first in what we believe will be a series of joint product development opportunities between Twist and Watchmaker aimed at driving continued improvement in performance and data quality for high-resolution genomic applications including NGS-based cfDNA and ctDNA studies, single-cell work, low allele somatic variant detection and tumor mutation burden,” said Trey Foskett, co-founder of Watchmaker. “In addition, we look forward to bringing our protein engineering technologies into the product mix to fuel new avenues of research across many disease areas.”

About Watchmaker Genomics

Watchmaker Genomics applies advanced enzymology to enable breakthrough applications for the reading, writing, and editing of DNA and RNA. The company combines deep domain expertise in protein engineering with large-scale enzyme manufacturing to address the demanding quality, performance, and scale requirements of high-growth genomics applications.

Watchmaker’s product portfolio includes enzymes and kits for next-generation sequencing library preparation, synthetic biology, and molecular diagnostics. Based in Boulder, Colorado, Watchmaker Genomics is co-founded by Trey Foskett, Brian Kudlow, and Stephen Picone. The team brings decades of collective experience building successful life science companies, commercializing novel technologies, and advancing clinical genomics applications. Watchmaker partners directly with innovative life science companies, commercial sequencing providers, and pioneering research labs. For more information, visit http://www.watchmakergenomics.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 Twist and Watchmaker entering into a definitive agreement with respect to the partnership and the ability of the partnership to offer differentiated products that simplify and streamline workflows, to improve performance and data quality for genomic applications and to fuel new avenues of research across many disease areas, 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 of the ability to attract new customers and retain and grow sales from existing customers; risks and uncertainties of rapidly changing technologies and extensive competition in synthetic biology could make the products Twist Bioscience is developing obsolete or non-competitive; uncertainties of the retention of a significant customer; risks of third party claims alleging infringement of patents and proprietary rights or seeking to invalidate Twist Bioscience’s patents or proprietary rights; and the risk that Twist Bioscience’s proprietary rights may be insufficient to protect its technologies. For a further description of the risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those expressed in these forward-looking statements, as well as risks relating to Twist Bioscience’s business in general, see Twist Bioscience’s risk factors set forth in Twist Bioscience’s Quarterly Report Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 9, 2021 and subsequent filings with the SEC. 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.

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