Twist responds to Agilent lawsuit

Synthetic DNA producer Twist Bioscience responded in California state court to Agilent Technologies’ claims that Twist cofounder Emily Leproust stole trade secrets from Agilent. Leproust is a former Agilent chemistry R&D director. Twist says that its DNA synthesis technology started with two engineers, Bill Banyai and Bill Beck, who met in 2008. Denying Agilent’s claim that Leproust used Agilent resources to develop the technology, Twist says Leproust worked loyally at Agilent until she resigned in April 2013 to join the two engineers in launching Twist.