Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT) expanded its synthetic biology operations with the opening of a new 25,000 ft2 site in Coralville, IA. The two-story building will be dedicated to the manufacturing of IDT synthetic biology products, doubles IDT’s synthetic biology footprint, and enables IDT to further enhance its gene synthesis portfolio with differentiated offerings, according to Demaris Mills, president of the company.
“The expansion of our synthetic biology manufacturing operations adds significant capacity for IDT and lays the foundation for the future growth of our synthetic biology product portfolio,” said Mills. “With this increased footprint, we will be introducing new product enhancements, which will include the launch of a rapid gene synthesis offering expected in late Q2. This investment provides IDT with a growth runway for its synthetic biology product portfolio and manufacturing arm to support the rapidly expanding global DNA synthesis market and related drug development activity.”
Dedicated to synbio lab space
More than half of the new facility has been dedicated to synthetic biology lab spaces. Other areas include office and conference rooms, amenities, onsite dedicated support resources, and additional space for future expansion. Lab features include enhanced cold storage, facility flow designed for lean manufacturing, and LED lighting and building automation systems to enable energy efficient building performance, continued Mills, adding that the facility will be operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The investment comes after IDT’s recent launch of its new custom vector onboarding tool to equip researchers with a solution that enables them to skip in-house cloning steps and move into functional studies with 100% sequence-verified clonal DNA. The launch was the latest addition to IDT’s synthetic biology portfolio comprised of gene and gene fragment offerings. As a large-scale provider of synthetic DNA, IDT can make gene fragments between 125 bp to 3 kb, and custom genes from 25 bp to over 5 kb, point out Mills.
The expansion of IDT’s synthetic biology manufacturing facility marks the second facility completion for IDT within the last 12 months. In late 2023, IDT announced the completion of its new Therapeutic Oligonucleotide Manufacturing facility in Iowa, which commemorated its entrance into the therapeutics space, noted Mills.
