Twist Bioscience Launches Synthetic RNA Control for H5N1 Influenza A

NGS-verified synthetic control covers 99.9% of HA and NA genome regions

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 the expansion of its growing portfolio of synthetic viral controls with the launch of a synthetic RNA control for H5N1 Influenza A, which is one of the causes of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) or bird flu, covering 99.9% of hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) genome regions.

“As agricultural and infectious disease researchers around the world continue to monitor the spread of H5N1, we continue our unwavering commitment to responding rapidly to threats to public health by providing innovative and critical tools to safeguard our global community and enable monitoring and surveillance as well as vaccine and assay development,” said Emily M. Leproust, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Twist Bioscience. “Our synthetic controls, including the H5N1 Influenza A control, enable broader research access without the need for live viruses. This allows critical work to be conducted in BSL-1 labs, accelerating research and development efforts. Importantly, we maintain biosecurity as a core tenet across all our products and processes. By empowering global research with safe, synthetic tools, we're advancing science while upholding the highest safety standards.”

Positive controls provide quality control measures for the development, verification, and ongoing validation of both next-generation sequencing (NGS) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays. The Twist control contains synthetic RNA segments of the complete H5N1 HA and NA genome regions, which determine the subtype of the strain.

Twist provides a suite of research tools and NGS products, including custom controls and reference standards for H5N1 Influenza A, mpox, respiratory diseases including coronaviruses, influenza viruses, paramyxoviruses and enteroviruses as well as cfDNA controls for liquid biopsy assay and cancer research. Twist also offers the Twist Comprehensive Viral Research Panel, featured in a recent scientific publication for the detection of H5N1 in wastewater, which contains over one million probes for the targeted enrichment of over three thousand viral human pathogens.

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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Twist Bioscience 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, including, but not limited to, statements regarding the ability of our synthetic control products to accelerate research and vaccine and assay development. 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 ability to achieve the expected benefits of Twist Bioscience’s restructuring activities and reduced investments in DNA data storage; the ability to attract new customers and retain and grow sales from existing customers; the ability of Twist Bioscience to achieve sufficient revenue to achieve or maintain positive cash flow from operations or profitability in any given period will depend heavily on the success of our existing products and the development and commercialization of additional products in the synthetic biology, biologic drug and data storage industries; risks and uncertainties of rapidly changing technologies and extensive competition in synthetic biology that could make the products Twist Bioscience is developing obsolete or non-competitive; uncertainties of the retention of significant customers; the ability of Twist Bioscience to successfully integrate acquired companies and to achieve expected benefits from acquisitions; supply chain and other disruptions; 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 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 Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on November 21, 2023 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.

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