$12.2 Million Series A Financing for Molecular Assemblies

Molecular Assemblies, Inc. raised a $12.2 million series A financing led by iSelect Fundhttps://www.iselectfund.com and joined by existing investors, Agilent Technologies, Inc., Alexandria Venture Investments, LLC and Keshif Ventures, LLC.

The proceeds of the financing will be used to advance the company’s proprietary enzymatic DNA synthesis technology to power DNA-based products in synthetic biology. Enzymatic DNA synthesis can write long, pure DNA, which is required to unleash the potential of synthetic biology applications, such as personalized medicines (including CAR-T cell therapies and CRISPR gene editing), and advanced agricultural and industrial products, through gene development and DNA-based storage.

“We are thankful to our progressive investors who see the massive potential of our proprietary enzymatic DNA synthesis technology in revolutionizing many industries,” Michael J. Kamdar, president and CEO. “Our ability to reliably, affordably, and sustainably produce long, high-quality DNA can accelerate life science research and transform the information storage industry by enabling integrated systems that can write and read DNA data.”

Synthetic DNA is used in a range of applications, including life science research, biologic therapeutics and diagnostics, storage, nanotechnology, and industrial processes (including agriculture, plastics, fermentation, and even leather production).

However, the potential of synthetic DNA has not been realized due to the cumbersome process of chemical DNA synthesis. The three-decade-old method for chemically synthesizing DNA is inherently limited to short DNA sequences, requires extensive post-synthesis processing, and uses hazardous chemicals.

To overcome these hurdles, scientists at Molecular Assemblies have pioneered a two-step enzymatic DNA synthesis process that can deliver highly-pure, sequence-specific DNA on demand, without a template, and can scale to longer DNA sequences. This proprietary process uses aqueous, non-toxic reagents and requires minimal post-synthesis purification and processing. Company’ enzymatic approach is designed to reliably, affordably, and sustainably produce long, high quality DNA, optimized for life science and storage applications.

“Enzymatic DNA synthesis is the optimal way to create a cost-effective, sustainable, and scalable integrated system that stores and reads information in DNA,” said Mike Kime, MD, iSelect Fund. “With a proprietary technology position, Molecular Assemblies’ novel enzymatic DNA synthesis platform has the potential to fundamentally transform how we create DNA on demand to enable breakthroughs in life sciences, information storage, synthetic biology, and electronics.“

Read also:
Storage and Retrieval of Information With Enzymatic DNA Synthesis From Molecular Assemblies
Physical DNA was then ‘read’ by DNA sequencing and converted back to binary data and then to text message.
August 29, 2018 | Press Release