It was on January 7th 2016, that Gen9, an established company involved in DNA synthesis and assembly technology announced the issuance of four innovative U.S. patents in the ending of 2015. The patents are related to gene synthesis and synthetic biology technologies. It is quite understandable that the awarded patents have further added feathers of success to Gen9’s already extensive intellectual property portfolio encompassing more than 100 patents and with many patents pending.

With reference to Gen9:
Gen9 founded by world leaders in synthetic biology is the foremost next-generation gene synthesis company which has emphasizes on high-quality, high-throughput, automated production of DNA constructs. The Gen9 technology enables availability of lowest-cost and highest-quality DNA constructs. Furthermore, Gen9 aims to guarantee the constructive application of synthetic biology in industries involved with enzyme and chemical production, pharmaceuticals and biofuels. The company’s headquarters is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The details of the newly issued U.S patents are as mentioned below:

1. S. Patent No. 9,217,144 entitled “Assembly of high fidelity polynucleotides”. The respective patent provides details of methods and apparatus related to the synthesis of high fidelity polynucleotides and to the reduction of sequence errors generated during synthesis of nucleic acids on a solid support. The design of support-bound template oligonucleotides is exclusively disclosed in the patent. The methods of assembly include cycles of annealing, stringent wash and extension of polynucleotides comprising a sequence region complementary to immobilized template oligonucleotides. The synthetically generated nucleic acids can be used for a variety of applications, like for the synthesis of biofuels and various pharmaceutical products.
2. S. Patent No. 9,216,414 entitled “Microfluidic devices and methods for gene synthesis”; covers devices and methods for preparing oligonucleotides and methods for assembling nucleic acid molecules using microfluidic devices.
3. S. Patent No. 9,187,777 entitled “Methods and devices for in situDNA synthesis.”; provides details for synthesizing a nucleic acid having a predefined sequence and the involved methods include; a) providing a support comprising a plurality of features, each feature comprising a plurality of single-stranded support-bound oligonucleotides; b) hybridizing a partially double-stranded first oligonucleotide to at least a first support-bound oligonucleotide at a first feature, wherein the first partially double-stranded oligonucleotide comprises a 5′ overhang and a ligatable predetermined addition nucleotide at a 3′ end of the double-stranded portion; c) ligating the partially double-stranded first oligonucleotide to the first support-bound oligonucleotide thereby generating a first ligation product comprising the predetermined addition nucleotide; and d) cleaving the first ligation product thereby generating a first elongated support-bound oligonucleotide comprising the predetermined addition nucleotide.
4. S. Patent No. 9,150,853 entitled “Methods for screening proteins using nucleic acid encoded chemical libraries.” discloses methods, compositions and devices for screening a protein library for proteins having a desired activity, like catalyzing the formation of a bond between two reactants.

According to Kevin Munnelly, President and CEO of Gen9 “These new patents reflect our continued commitment to innovation in the high-throughput manufacture of synthetic DNA. Genes are the foundation of discoveries being made by our customers, and we are uniquely positioned to meet their needs, now and in the future,” and he also mentioned that “Additionally, many scientists are engineering proteins for useful purposes, so we see shortening the cycle time for improved protein expression as incredibly important for green chemical production, improved therapeutics and many other critical applications.”