Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ: TWST), a company enabling customers to succeed through its offering of high-quality synthetic DNA using its silicon platform, today announced its support of the Engineering Biology Research Consortium (EBRC) and its Statement of Ethics in Engineering Biology Research. A companion paper, titled “Guiding ethical principles in engineering biology research,” to contextualize the purpose and principles behind the Statement has also now been published in ACS Synthetic Biology.

Progress in the field of engineering biology has already had a major impact in medicine, food and agriculture, environmental sustainability, and bioindustrial manufacturing. In the U.S. alone in 2016, the most recent data available, engineering biology accounted for 5.1%ⁱ of gross domestic product, as discussed in “Next Steps to Grow the Bioeconomy”ⁱⁱ published in Health Security. As with many other rapidly growing and highly impactful technologies, the long-term implications of this innovative research require forward-thinking guidelines and ethical frameworks to support responsible use. The EBRC Statement urges scientists to consider several guiding principles, including developing products or processes that benefit people, society, or the environment, and be aware and mindful of the ethical and societal consequences at each stage of their research.

“The goal of this Statement of Ethics from EBRC is to facilitate ongoing reflection and collaboration amongst our peers, the general scientific community, policymakers, and other stakeholders to support ethical processes and outcomes in engineering biology innovation and development,” said James Diggans, Ph.D., distinguished scientist, bioinformatics and biosecurity at Twist Bioscience and member of the EBRC Security Working Group.

“At Twist, we respect and understand the incredible power of our synthetic DNA technologies and, as such, pursue opportunities to further our biosecurity and ethical practices,” said Emily M. Leproust, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Twist Bioscience. “We remain at the forefront of biosecurity screening and security research, enabling our customers to succeed in improving health and sustainability while actively engaging with external experts to ensure we continue to anticipate and address potential threats. The EBRC Statement of Ethics helps to provide additional guidance to our community, which we welcome and support.”

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 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 May 7, 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.

ⁱ The NAS study is Safeguarding the Bioeconomy, c.f https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25525/safeguarding-the-bioeconomy

ⁱⁱ Smith E, Diggans J. Next Steps to Grow the Bioeconomy. Health Secur. 2020 Jul/Aug;18(4):297-302. doi: 10.1089/hs.2020.0012. PMID: 32816592.

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