Agilent Sues Twist Over Synthetic DNA

The synthetic DNA start-up Twist Bioscience is denying a claim by Agilent Technologies that Twist cofounder Emily Leproust stole trade secrets from Agilent. Leproust is a former Agilent chemistry R&D director who left the company in 2013 to cofound Twist. Like other synthetic DNA providers, Twist uses phosphoramidite chemistry. But instead of the standard 96-well plate, Twist does its chemistry in 10,000 nanowells on a silicon chip. Agilent’s complaint alleges that Leproust, while working for Agilent, used its resources, people, and proprietary information to develop Twist’s technology.