As biotechnology advances, we will need a digital ecosystem for synthetic DNA.
Synthetic DNA allows us to program cells and organisms to make new things and perform complex tasks. It will be one of the most widely used resources in the world as we leverage biotechnology across all aspects of society - curing disease, manufacturing new materials, producing energy, growing food and controlling our climate.
Unfortunately, we are still relying on plasmid banks (Addgene) to store and share synthetic DNA. These samples are bulky, expensive, slow to ship, hard to customize and unreliable in quality over time. As DNA synthesis is getting cheaper and more accessible, there is an increasing preference in both academia and industry to search for DNA online and synthesize it from scratch, rather than rely on plasmid banks.
While designing and ordering synthetic DNA is becoming a free-for-all process, there is currently no way to network and share designs. This is because there has historically been a very secretive and proprietary culture around DNA designs. However, as the cost and accessibility of DNA sequencing is falling in tandem with synthesis technology, it is now easy to read and write other people's DNA. Since DNA sequences are also constantly exchanged and combined into new arrangements, it is impossible to monitor ownership and enforce patents regarding their re-use.
We are headed towards an open-source economy around synthetic DNA and we need to build infrastructure to support innovation. To that end, we propose to build the world's first digital ecosystem for synthetic DNA. This platform will be different from DNA editors (Benchling, Snapgene) in that it will be a place to share and download DNA designs.
Creators publishing their work will be able to upload their DNA designs online, which will be annotated and linked to their publication. Users will be able to search for these sequences and synthesize the designs themselves. Since DNA sequences will be processed and annotated by the platform, it will be a trustless way to validate new designs. Users can follow a creator or design and be updated on any new versions.
This platform will have three core capabilities: (1) the largest evolving database of DNA features, (2) the fastest DNA annotation software, and (3) the most convenient search system for synthetic DNA online.
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