Genomics & DNA design

Genomics and DNA design is the “write” complement to sequencing’s “read”: designing and chemically synthesizing DNA from scratch, assembling whole synthetic chromosomes, and encoding digital data directly into DNA base pairs rather than analyzing naturally occurring genomes. Twist Bioscience, a leading DNA synthesis company, spun out its DNA data storage technology into an independent company, Atlas Data Storage, in a $155 million launch in 2025, aimed at providing commercial end-to-end DNA data storage solutions for hyperscale cloud providers and enterprise customers. In China, Tianjin University’s synthetic biology team, led by Academician Yuan Yingjin, co-authored the landmark 2017 Science papers reporting the de novo design and chemical synthesis of four synthetic yeast chromosomes as part of the international Sc2.0 project, and in 2026 published a Nature Methods paper describing SynNICE, a new technology enabling precise megabase-scale assembly of human DNA fragments in yeast and their cross-species delivery into mouse embryos, where the synthetic DNA was observed to be activated and to carry regulatory epigenetic marks. In France, Toulouse White Biotechnology (TWB) — Europe’s flagship industrial synthetic-biology design center — is accelerating its development of industrial biotechnology strain-design work for chemicals and materials production. In Germany, the Max Planck Institute for Synthetic Biology is pursuing bottom-up synthetic biology, including minimal approaches to synthetic cell construction and photosynthetic synthetic organisms.

The key directions of genomics and DNA design are:

1. De novo genome and chromosome synthesis: chemically synthesizing entire chromosomes or genomes from scratch, as demonstrated by the international Sc2.0 synthetic yeast genome project, rather than only reading and annotating natural ones.
2. Large-fragment DNA assembly and cross-species delivery: assembling megabase-scale synthetic DNA fragments (including human sequences) in a host organism such as yeast, then delivering them into a different species to study gene regulation and epigenetics.
3. Industrial strain design (foundry work): engineering microbial production strains for chemicals and materials manufacturing, the applied/industrial counterpart to fundamental synthetic genomics.
4. DNA-based digital data storage: encoding digital information directly into synthetic DNA base sequences for ultra-dense, long-term archival storage, now moving from R&D into dedicated commercial ventures.

Sectoral value chain#

[Design & Codon Optimization] ──> [DNA Synthesis (oligos/genes)] ──> [Assembly into Chromosomes/Constructs]
                                                                                  │
                                                                        (Host delivery/transformation)
                                                                                  │
                                                                                  ▼
[Applications: Data Storage / Industrial Strains / Research] <─── [Validation & Sequencing QC]

Value chain levels#

Cross-cutting technologies of the sector:

• Solid-phase DNA synthesis: automated synthesizers building oligonucleotides base-by-base using phosphoramidite chemistry, the foundational technology behind both gene synthesis and DNA data storage.
• Synthetic chromosome design (Sc2.0-style): redesigning a genome’s chromosomes with modifications (removed repetitive elements, relocated tRNA genes, an inducible genome-scrambling system) while preserving the organism’s viability.
• DNA-based digital data storage: encoding binary data as base sequences (A/C/G/T), exploiting DNA’s extreme information density (on the order of petabytes per gram) and multi-century stability for archival storage.

The genomics and DNA design stack pairs computational sequence design with wet-lab synthesis and assembly methods:

1. Automated solid-phase oligonucleotide synthesis:
   • DNA synthesizers build oligonucleotides base-by-base using phosphoramidite chemistry, the core process underlying both custom gene synthesis and DNA-based data storage encoding.
2. Synthetic chromosome assembly and genome scrambling:
   • Following the Sc2.0 model, redesigned chromosome sequences (with repetitive elements removed and an inducible recombination system inserted) are assembled from synthesized fragments and delivered into a host cell, preserving viability while enabling large-scale genome-scale engineering.
3. Large-fragment DNA assembly for cross-species delivery:
   • Technologies such as Tianjin University’s SynNICE assemble megabase-scale DNA fragments (including human sequences) within a yeast host, then extract and deliver the intact large fragment into a different species’ cells or embryos for functional study.