Diversity is in our DNA
The future is being built by people like you. At Twist, we're all stronger because of the variety of experiences and backgrounds Twisters bring to their jobs every day. Below are a few of the places in the world where Twist employees grew up.

Leadership Team
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Emily Leproust, PhD
CEO and Co-Founder of Twist
Read Bio / PublicationsxEmily Leproust, PhD
CEO and Co-Founder of Twist
As an early pioneer in the high-throughput synthesis and sequencing of DNA, Dr. Leproust is disrupting markets to enable the exponential growth of DNA-based applications including chemicals/materials, diagnostics, therapeutics, food and digital data storage. In 2020, BIO presented her with the Rosalind Franklin Award for Leadership. Foreign Policy named her one of their 100 Leading Global Thinkers and Fast Company named her one of the Most Creative People in Business. Prior to Twist Bioscience, she held escalating positions at Agilent Technologies where she architected the successful SureSelect product line that lowered the cost of sequencing and elucidated mechanisms responsible for dozens of Mendelian diseases. She also developed the Oligo Library Synthesis technology, where she initiated and led product and business development activities for the team. Dr. Leproust designed and developed multiple commercial synthesis platforms to streamline microarray manufacturing and fabrication. She serves on the Board of Directors of CM Life Sciences and is a co-founder of Petri, an accelerator for start-ups at the forefront of engineering and biology. Dr. Leproust has published over 30 peer-reviewed papers – many on applications of synthetic DNA, and is the author of numerous patents. She earned her Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from University of Houston and her M.Sc. in Industrial Chemistry from the Lyon School of Industrial Chemistry.
Publications
Structure-guided SCHEMA recombination generates diverse chimeric channelrhodopsinsBedbrook CN, Rice AJ, Yang KK, Ding X, Chen S, LeProust EM, Gradinaru V, Arnold FH.
PNAS. 2017 114(13) E2624-E2633Polycomb repressive complex PRC1 spatially constrains the mouse embryonic stem cell genomeSchoenfelder S, Sugar R, Dimond A, Javierre B, Armstrong H, Mifsud B, Dimitrova E, Matheson L, Tavares-Cadete F, Furlan-Magaril M, Segonds-Pichon A, Jurkowski W, Wingett SW, Tabbada K, Andrews S, Herman B, LeProust EM, Osborne CS, Koseki H, Fraser P, Luscombe NM, Elderkin S.
Nature Genetics. 2015 47 1179–1186Mapping long-range promoter contacts in human cells with high-resolution capture Hi-CMifsud B, Tavares-Cadete F, Young AN, Sugar R, Schoenfelder S, Ferreira L, Wingett SW, Andrews S, Grey W, Ewels PA, Herman B, Happe S, Higgs A, LeProust EM, Follows GA, Fraser P, Luscombe NM, Osborne CS.
Nature Genetics. 47 (6) 598-606.The pluripotent regulatory circuitry connecting promoters to their long-range interacting elementsSchoenfelder S, Furlan-Magaril M, Mifsud B, Tavares-Cadete F, Sugar, R, Javierre B, Nagano T, Katsman Y, Sakthidevi M, Wingett SW, Dimitrova E, Dimond A, Edelman LB, Elderkin S, Tabbada K, Darbo E, Andrews S, Herman B, Higgs A, LeProust EM, Osborne CS, Mitchell JA, Luscombe NM, Fraser P.
Genome Res. 2015. 25: 582-597Utilizing ethnic-specific differences in minor allele frequency to recategorize reported pathogenic deafness variantsShearer AE, Eppsteiner RW, Booth KT, Ephraim SS, Gurrola J, Simpson A, Black-Ziegelbein EA, Joshi S, Ravi H, Giuffre AC, Happe S, Hildebrand MS, Azaiez H, Bayazit YA, Erdal ME, Lopez-Escamez JA, Gazquez I, Tamayo ML, Gelvez NY, Leal GL, Jalas C, Ekstein J, Yang T, Usami S, Kahrizi K, Bazazzadegan N, Najmabadi H, Scheetz TE, Braun TA, Casavant TL, LeProust EM, Smith RJ.
The American Journal of Human Genetics. 95 4 445-453
Systematic Identification of Barriers to Human iPSC Generation
Qin H, Diaz A, Blouin L, Lebbink RJ, Patena W, Tanbun P, LeProust EM, McManus MT, Song JS, Ramalho-Santos M.
158 (2) 449–461
A high-coverage shRNA screen identifies TMEM129 as an E3 ligase involved in ER-associated protein degradation
van de Weijer ML, Bassik MC, Luteijn RD, Voorburg CM, Lohuis MA, Kremmer E, Hoeben RC, LeProust EM, Chen S, Hoelen H, Ressing ME, Patena W, Weissman JS, McManus MTa, Wiertz, EJa, and Lebbink RJa.
Nat Commun. (2014) 5: 3832.Evidence for the biogenesis of more than 1,000 novel human microRNAsFriedländer MR, Lizano E, Houben AJS, Bezdan D, Báñez-Coronel M, Kudla G, Mateu-Huertas E, Kagerbauer B, González J, Chen KC, LeProust EM, Martí E, Estivill X.
Genome biology. 2014 15:R57Exonic Transcription Factor Binding Directs Codon Choice and Affects Protein EvolutionStergachis AB, Haugen E, Shafer A, Fu W, Vernot B, Reynolds A, Raubitschek A, Ziegler S, LeProust EM, Akey JM, Stamatoyannopoulos JA.
Science. 2013 342(6164) 1367-1372Advancing genetic testing for deafness with genomic technology.Shearer AE, Black-Ziegelbein EA, Hildebrand MS, Eppsteiner RW, Ravi H, Joshi S, Guiffre AC, Sloan CM, Happe S, Howard SD, Novak B, Deluca AP, Taylor KR, Scheetz TE, Braun TA, Casavant TL, Kimberling WJ, Leproust EM, Smith RJ.
Journal of Medical Genetics. 2013 50(9) 627-34A systematic mammalian genetic interaction map reveals pathways underlying ricin susceptibility.Bassik MC, Kampmann M, Lebbink RJ, Wang S, Hein MY, Poser I, Weibezahn J, Horlbeck MA, Chen S, Mann M, Hyman AA, Leproust EM, McManus MT, Weissman JS.
Cell. 2013 152(4) 909-22Towards practical, high-capacity, low-maintenance information storage in synthesized DNA.Goldman N, Bertone P, Chen S, Dessimoz C, LeProust EM, Sipos B, Birney E.
Nature. 2013 494(7435) 77-80Targeted genome enrichment for efficient purification of endosymbiont DNA from host DNA.Geniez S, Foster JM, Kumar S, Moumen B, Leproust E, Hardy O, Guadalupe M, Thomas SJ, Boone B, Hendrickson C, Bouchon D, Grève P, Slatko BE.
Symbiosis. 2012 58 (1-3) 201-207Mitochondrial disease genetic diagnostics: optimized whole-exome analysis for all MitoCarta nuclear genes and the mitochondrial genome.Falk MJ, Pierce EA, Consugar M, Xie MH, Guadalupe M, Hardy O, Rappaport EF, Wallace DC,LeProust E, Gai X.
Discovery Medicine. 2012 14(79) 389-99Pre-capture multiplexing improves efficiency and cost-effectiveness of targeted genomic enrichment.Shearer AE, Hildebrand MS, Ravi H, Joshi S, Guiffre AC, Novak B, Happe S, LeProust EM, Smith RJ. BMC Genomics. 2012 13 618Target enrichment strategies for next generation sequencing.Leproust E.
Medical Laboratory Observer. 2012 44(6) 26-7Myofibrillar myopathy caused by a mutation in the motor domain of mouse MyHC IIb.Kurapati R, McKenna C, Lindqvist J, Williams D, Simon M, LeProust E, Baker J, Cheeseman M, Carroll N, Denny P, Laval S, Lochmüller H, Ochala J, Blanco G.
Human Molecular Genetics. 2012 21(8) 1706-24Specific capture and whole-genome sequencing of viruses from clinical samples.Depledge DP, Palser AL, Watson SJ, Lai IY, Gray ER, Grant P, Kanda RK, Leproust E, Kellam P, Breuer J.
PLoS One. 2011 6(11) e27805Autoantigen discovery with a synthetic human peptidome.Larman HB, Zhao Z, Laserson U, Li MZ, Ciccia A, Gakidis MA, Church GM, Kesari S, Leproust EM, Solimini NL, Elledge SJ.
Nature Biotechnology. 2011 29(6) 535-41Efficient and cost effective population resequencing by pooling and in-solution hybridization.Bansal V, Tewhey R, Leproust EM, Schork NJ.
PLoS One. 2011 6(3) e18353The GENCODE exome: sequencing the complete human exome.Coffey AJ, Kokocinski F, Calafato MS, Scott CE, Palta P, Drury E, Joyce CJ, Leproust EM, Harrow J, Hunt S, Lehesjoki AE, Turner DJ, Hubbard TJ, Palotie A.
European Journal Human Genetics. 2011 19(7) 827-31Scalable gene synthesis by selective amplification of DNA pools from high-fidelity microchips.Kosuri S, Eroshenko N, Leproust EM, Super M, Way J, Li JB, Church GM.
Nature Biotechnology. 2010 28(12) 1295-9Temporal and spatial profile of brain diffusion-weighted MRI after cardiac arrest.Mlynash M, Campbell DM, Leproust EM, Fischbein NJ, Bammer R, Eyngorn I, Hsia AW, Moseley M, Wijman CA.
Stroke. 2010 41(8) 1665-72Synthesis of high-quality libraries of long (150mer) oligonucleotides by a novel depurination controlled process.LeProust EM, Peck BJ, Spirin K, McCuen HB, Moore B, Namsaraev E, Caruthers MH.
Nucleic Acids Research. 2010 38(8) 2522-40Enrichment of sequencing targets from the human genome by solution hybridization.Tewhey R, Nakano M, Wang X, Pabón-Peña C, Novak B, Giuffre A, Lin E, Happe S, Roberts DN,LeProust EM, Topol EJ, Harismendy O, Frazer KA.
Genome Biology. 2009 10(10) R116Digital RNA allelotyping reveals tissue-specific and allele-specific gene expression in human.Zhang K, Li JB, Gao Y, Egli D, Xie B, Deng J, Li Z, Lee JH, Aach J, Leproust EM, Eggan K, Church GM.
Nature Methods. 2009 6(8) 613-8Multiplex padlock targeted sequencing reveals human hypermutable CpG variations.Li JB, Gao Y, Aach J, Zhang K, Kryukov GV, Xie B, Ahlford A, Yoon JK, Rosenbaum AM, Zaranek AW, LeProust E, Sunyaev SR, Church GM.
Genome Research. 2009 19(9) 1606-15Genome-wide identification of human RNA editing sites by parallel DNA capturing and sequencing.Li JB, Levanon EY, Yoon JK, Aach J, Xie B, Leproust E, Zhang K, Gao Y, Church GM.
Science. 2009 324(5931) 1210-3Rapid creation and quantitative monitoring of high coverage shRNA libraries.Bassik MC, Lebbink RJ, Churchman LS, Ingolia NT, Patena W, LeProust EM, Schuldiner M, Weissman JS, McManus MT.
Nature Methods. 2009 6(6) 443-5Targeted bisulfite sequencing reveals changes in DNA methylation associated with nuclear reprogramming.Deng J, Shoemaker R, Xie B, Gore A, LeProust EM, Antosiewicz-Bourget J, Egli D, Maherali N, Park IH, Yu J, Daley GQ, Eggan K, Hochedlinger K, Thomson J, Wang W, Gao Y, Zhang K.
Nature Biotechnology. 2009 27(4) 353-60Targeted and genome-scale strategies reveal gene-body methylation signatures in human cells.Ball MP, Li JB, Gao Y, Lee JH, LeProust EM, Park IH, Xie B, Daley GQ, Church GM.
Nature Biotechnology. 2009 27(4) 361-8Solution hybrid selection with ultra-long oligonucleotides for massively parallel targeted sequencing.Gnirke A, Melnikov A, Maguire J, Rogov P, LeProust EM, Brockman W, Fennell T, Giannoukos G, Fisher S, Russ C, Gabriel S, Jaffe DB, Lander ES, Nusbaum C.
Nature Biotechnology. 2009 27(2) 182-9The DNA-encoded nucleosome organization of a eukaryotic genome.Kaplan N, Moore IK, Fondufe-Mittendorf Y, Gossett AJ, Tillo D, Field Y, LeProust EM, Hughes TR, Lieb JD, Widom J, Segal E.
Nature. 2009 458(7236) 362-6Multiplex amplification of large sets of human exons.Porreca GJ, Zhang K, Li JB, Xie B, Austin D, Vassallo SL, LeProust EM, Peck BJ, Emig CJ, Dahl F, Gao Y, Church GM, Shendure J.
Nature Methods. 2007 4(11) 931-6Production of complex nucleic acid libraries using highly parallel in situ oligonucleotide synthesis.Cleary MA, Kilian K, Wang Y, Bradshaw J, Cavet G, Ge W, Kulkarni A, Paddison PJ, Chang K, Sheth N, Leproust E, Coffey EM, Burchard J, McCombie WR, Linsley P, Hannon GJ.
Nature Methods. 2004 1(3) 241-8Effects of atmospheric ozone on microarray data quality.Fare TL, Coffey EM, Dai H, He YD, Kessler DA, Kilian KA, Koch JE, LeProust E, Marton MJ, Meyer MR, Stoughton RB, Tokiwa GY, Wang Y.
Analytical Chemistry. 2003 75(17) 4672-5A flexible light-directed DNA chip synthesis gated by deprotection using solution photogenerated acids.Gao X, LeProust E, Zhang H, Srivannavit O, Gulari E, Yu P, Nishiguchi C, Xiang Q, Zhou X.
Nucleic Acids Research. 2001 29(22) 4744-50.Characterization of oligodeoxyribonucleotide synthesis on glass plates.LeProust E, Zhang H, Yu P, Zhou X, Gao X.
Nucleic Acids Research. 2001 29(10) 2171-80Unexpected formation of parallel duplex in GAA and TTC trinucleotide repeats of Friedreich's ataxia.LeProust EM, Pearson CE, Sinden RR, Gao X.
Journal of Molecular Biology. 2000 302(5) 1063-80Digital light-directed synthesis. A microarray platform that permits rapid reaction optimization on a combinatorial basis.LeProust E, Pellois JP, Yu P, Zhang H, Gao X, Srivannavit O, Gulari E, Zhou X.
Journal of Combinatorial Chemistry. 2000 2(4) 349-54An efficient and economic site-specific deuteration strategy for NMR studies of homologous oligonucleotide repeat sequences.Huang X, Yu P, LeProust E, Gao X.
Nucleic Acids Research. 1997 25(23) 4758-63 -
Jim Thorburn
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
Read Bio / PublicationsxJim Thorburn
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
Mr. Thorburn is a seasoned technology executive with more than 30 years of finance and operating experience in both private and public technology companies. Prior to Twist Bioscience, he served as Chief Sales Officer of Televerde, a demand generation and sales acceleration enterprise, focused on scaling the business internationally. Prior to Televerde, he served as interim CFO of several public and private companies including Enercore, Next Autoworks, Fisker Automotive and Numonyx (acquired by Micron). As interim CFO of Numonyx, he was responsible for coordination of the merger between ST Microelectronics and the Intel Flash Memory divisions as well as the financing to support the $2B revenue company. Before Numonyx, he served as chairman and CEO of ZiLOG, leading the successful turnaround of the business, public offering and ultimate sale to IXYS. Jim has served as an operator consultant to Texas Pacific Group (TPG), COO and Co-President of ON Semiconductor and led the buyout and IPO of ON.
Prior to ON Jim held various senior executive financial positions in the business units of National Semiconductor.
Mr. Thorburn is a former member of the Board of Directors for IXYS Corporation. He received his BSc (Hons.) in Agricultural Economics from the University of Glasgow and passed the Chartered Institute Management Accountant exams.
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Patrick Weiss
Chief Operating Officer
Read Bio / PublicationsxPatrick Weiss
Chief Operating Officer
Patrick is a diversified and well rounded executive and serial entrepreneur with a wide range of experience in building, integrating and managing businesses across diverse market segments. His detailed understanding of highly technical manufacturing work flows and products is complemented by a proven track record of successfully creating organizations, product lines, technologies and processes to maximize performance. Prior to Twist Bioscience, Patrick consulted for a wide range of life science companies both to build start-up organizations and execute turnarounds. Previously, he served as President and CEO of Operon Biotechnologies Inc., a global leader of DNA synthesis services, where he turned around the business from net loss to profitability in a short period of time. He restructured the business, eventually negotiating a successful merger with Eurofins SA. Prior to Operon, he founded Xeragon, an international provider of RNA synthesis and bioinformatics products (now QIAGEN). Patrick received his MSc in Organic Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, Molecular Biology, Genetics and Economics from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. He is an author of several issued patents.
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Patrick Finn
Chief Commercial Officer
Read Bio / PublicationsxPatrick Finn
Chief Commercial Officer
Patrick has a strong track record of high-growth sales in bioreagent, B2B and custom manufacturing organizations. His technical background paired with his ability to identify customer's unmet needs make him the ideal fit to lead our commercial organization. Before Twist Bioscience, Paddy served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Enzymatics (recently acquired by QIAGEN), leading commercial activities for North America and Europe, delivering significant top line growth and expanding the base of business to business customers. Prior to Enzymatics, Paddy held positions with increasing commercial focus, including Director of Business Development at Agilent Technologies, Director of Product Development for Beckman Coulter Molecular Diagnostics, and multiple technical roles in product development within Invitrogen and GE Healthcare/Amersham International. In addition, Paddy currently serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of Lasergen and previously served on the Scientific Advisory Board of Enzymatics. He holds a PhD in Nucleic Acid Chemistry from Southampton University and a BSc Hons in Chemistry from Heriot-Watt University.
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Aaron Sato, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Read Bio / PublicationsxAaron Sato, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Aaron is a proven biologics leader adept at managing teams to discover and develop novel first-in-class antibody therapeutics. Prior to Twist Bioscience, he served as Chief Scientific Officer of LakePharma, leading the California Antibody Center, which discovers novel antibody therapeutics for its clients. Prior to LakePharma, he oversaw all discovery research functions both as Vice President of Protein Sciences at Surrozen, and previously, as Vice President of Research at Sutro Biopharma, Inc. He also served as Senior Director of Antibody Engineering at OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for human antibody lead discovery and he served as project team leader on several key antibody projects through IND filing. Before OncoMed, Aaron held positions of increasing responsibility at Dyax Corp., most recently as Senior Director of Lead Discovery, leading antibody, peptide, and small protein discovery using their proprietary phage display technology. He earned his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he studied MHC class II structure-function relationships. He is an author of over 30 peer reviewed papers and 40 issued patents in the antibody space.
Publications
Rapid exploration of the epitope coverage produced by an Ebola survivor to guide the discovery of therapeutic antibody cocktails.
Yuan TZ, Lujan Hernandez AG, Keane E, Liu Q, Axelrod F, Kailasan S, Noonan-Shueh M, Aman MJ, Sato AK, and Abdiche YN.
Antib Ther. 2020 Aug 1 : tbaa016. Published online 2020 Aug 1. doi: 10.1093/abt/tbaa016
Post-Exposure Protection in Mice against Sudan Virus by a Two Antibody Cocktail.
Froude JW, Herbert AS, Pelat T, Miethe S, Zak SE, Brannan JM, Bakken RR, Steiner AR, Yin G, Hallam TJ, Sato AK, Hust M, Thullier P, Dye JM.
Viruses. 2018 May 26;10(6). pii: E286. doi: 10.3390/v10060286. PubMed PMID: 29861435.Toward a Ferrous Iron-Cleavable Linker for Antibody-Drug Conjugates.Spangler B, Kline T, Hanson J, Li X, Zhou S, Wells JA, Sato AK, Renslo AR.
Mol Pharm.2018 May 7;15(5):2054-2059. doi: 10.1021/acs.molpharmaceut.8b00242. Epub 2018 Mar 3. PubMed PMID: 29569925.Malaria Derived Glycosylphosphatidylinositol Anchor Enhances Anti-Pfs25 Functional Antibodies That Block Malaria Transmission.Kapoor N, Vanjak I, Rozzelle J, Berges A, Chan W, Yin G, Tran C, Sato AK, Steiner AR, Pham TP, Birkett AJ, Long CA, Fairman J, Miura K.
Biochemistry. 2018 Feb 6;57(5):516-519. doi: 10.1021/acs.biochem.7b01099. Epub 2018 Jan 16. PubMed PMID: 29323879; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5803671.RF1 attenuation enables efficient non-natural amino acid incorporation for production of homogeneous antibody drug conjugates.Yin G, Stephenson HT, Yang J, Li X, Armstrong SM, Heibeck TH, Tran C, Masikat MR, Zhou S, Stafford RL, Yam AY, Lee J, Steiner AR, Gill A, Penta K, Pollitt S, Baliga R, Murray CJ, Thanos CD, McEvoy LM, Sato AK, Hallam TJ.
Sci Rep. 2017 Jun 8;7(1):3026. doi:10.1038/s41598-017-03192-z. PubMed PMID: 28596531; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5465077.DAR Characterization of Site-Specific Antibody Drug Conjugates Produced in a Cell-Free Expression System.Xu Y, Jiang G, Tran C, Li X, Heibeck TH, Masikat MR, Cai Q, Steiner AR, Sato AK, Hallam TJ, Yin G.
RP-HPLC Org. Process Res. Dev., 2016, 20 (6): 1034–1043.Targeted Drug Delivery with an Integrin-Binding Knottin-Fc-MMAF Conjugate Produced by Cell-Free Protein Synthesis.Currier NV, Ackerman SE, Kintzing JR, Chen R, Filsinger Interrante M, Steiner A, Sato AK, Cochran JR.
Mol Cancer Ther. 2016 Jun;15(6):1291-300. doi: 10.1158/1535-7163.MCT-15-0881. Epub 2016 Mar 29. PubMed PMID: 27197305.Targeting notch signaling with a notch2/notch3 antagonist (tarextumab) inhibits tumor growth and decreases tumor-initiating cell frequency.Yen WC, Fischer MM, Axelrod F, Bond C, Cain J, Cancilla B, Henner WR, Meisner R, Sato A, Shah J, Tang T, Wallace B, Wang M, Zhang C, Kapoun AM, Lewicki J, Gurney A, Hoey T.
Clin Cancer Res. 2015 May 1;21(9):2084-95. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-14-2808. PubMed PMID: 25934888.A simplified and robust protocol for immunoglobulin expression in Escherichia coli cell-free protein synthesis systems.Cai Q, Hanson JA, Steiner AR, Tran C, Masikat MR, Chen R, Zawada JF, Sato AK, Hallam TJ, Yin G.
Biotechnol Prog. 2015 May-Jun;31(3):823-31. doi: 10.1002/btpr.2082. Epub 2015 Apr 18. PubMed PMID: 25826247.Methods to Make Homogenous Antibody Drug Conjugates.Kline T, Steiner AR, Penta K, Sato AK, Hallam TJ, Yin G.
Pharm Res. 2015 Nov;32(11):3480-93. doi:10.1007/s11095-014-1596-8. Epub 2014 Dec 16. PubMed PMID: 25511917; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4596908.Production of bispecific antibodies in "knobs-into-holes" using a cell-free expression system.Xu Y, Lee J, Tran C, Heibeck TH, Wang WD, Yang J, Stafford RL, Steiner AR, Sato AK, Hallam TJ, Yin G.
MAbs. 2015;7(1):231-42. doi: 10.4161/19420862.2015.989013. PubMed PMID: 25427258; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4623329.A general sequence processing and analysis program for protein engineering.Stafford RL, Zimmerman ES, Hallam TJ, Sato AK.
J Chem Inf Model. 2014 Oct 27;54(10):3020-32. doi: 10.1021/ci500362s. Epub 2014 Oct 3. PubMed PMID: 25243907.In vitro Fab display: a cell-free system for IgG discovery.Stafford RL, Matsumoto ML, Yin G, Cai Q, Fung JJ, Stephenson H, Gill A, You M, Lin SH, Wang WD, Masikat MR, Li X, Penta K, Steiner AR, Baliga R, Murray CJ, Thanos CD, Hallam TJ, Sato AK.
Protein Eng Des Sel. 2014 Apr;27(4):97-109. doi: 10.1093/protein/gzu002. Epub 2014 Feb 28. PubMed PMID: 24586053; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3966677.Engineering toward a bacterial "endoplasmic reticulum" for the rapid expression of immunoglobulin proteins.Groff D, Armstrong S, Rivers PJ, Zhang J, Yang J, Green E, Rozzelle J, Liang S, Kittle JD Jr, Steiner AR, Baliga R, Thanos CD, Hallam TJ, Sato AK, Yam AY.
MAbs. 2014 May-Jun;6(3):671-8. doi: 10.4161/mabs.28172. Epub 2014 Feb 11. PubMed PMID: 24517929; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4011911.Production of site-specific antibody-drug conjugates using optimized non-natural amino acids in a cell-free expression system.Zimmerman ES, Heibeck TH, Gill A, Li X, Murray CJ, Madlansacay MR, Tran C, Uter NT, Yin G, Rivers PJ, Yam AY, Wang WD, Steiner AR, Bajad SU, Penta K, Yang W, Hallam TJ, Thanos CD, Sato AK.
Bioconjug Chem. 2014 Feb 19;25(2):351-61. doi: 10.1021/bc400490z. Epub 2014 Jan 29. PubMed PMID: 24437342.Wnt pathway inhibition via the targeting of Frizzled receptors results in decreased growth and tumorigenicity of human tumors.Gurney A, Axelrod F, Bond CJ, Cain J, Chartier C, Donigan L, Fischer M, Chaudhari A, Ji M, Kapoun AM, Lam A, Lazetic S, Ma S, Mitra S, Park IK, Pickell K, Sato A, Satyal S, Stroud M, Tran H, Yen WC, Lewicki J, Hoey T.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Jul 17;109(29):11717-22. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1120068109. Epub 2012 Jul 2. PubMed PMID: 22753465; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3406803.DLL4 blockade inhibits tumor growth and reduces tumor-initiating cell frequency.Hoey T, Yen WC, Axelrod F, Basi J, Donigian L, Dylla S, Fitch-Bruhns M, Lazetic S, Park IK, Sato A, Satyal S, Wang X, Clarke MF, Lewicki J, Gurney A.
Cell Stem Cell. 2009 Aug 7;5(2):168-77. doi: 10.1016/j.stem.2009.05.019. PubMed PMID: 19664991.Discovery of fully human anti-MET monoclonal antibodies with antitumor activity against colon cancer tumor models in vivo.van der Horst EH, Chinn L, Wang M, Velilla T, Tran H, Madrona Y, Lam A, Ji M, Hoey TC, Sato AK.
Neoplasia. 2009 Apr;11(4):355-64. PubMed PMID: 19308290; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2657888.Development of an Antibody Screening Assay for Selection of Production Cell Lines.Idusogie E. E., Castro J.M., Casipit C., Sato A.,Terasawa Y., and Mulkerrin M.G.
Bioprocess Int. 2008 April: 20-33.Identification of an ADAMTS-4 cleavage motif using phage display leads to the development of fluorogenic peptide substrates and reveals matrilin-3 as a novel substrate.Hills R, Mazzarella R, Fok K, Liu M, Nemirovskiy O, Leone J, Zack MD, Arner EC, Viswanathan M, Abujoub A, Muruganandam A, Sexton DJ, Bassill GJ, Sato AK, Malfait AM, Tortorella MD.
J Biol Chem. 2007 Apr 13;282(15):11101-9. Epub 2007 Feb 20. PubMed PMID: 17311924.Therapeutic peptides: technological advances driving peptides into development.Sato AK, Viswanathan M, Kent RB, Wood CR.
Curr Opin Biotechnol. 2006 Dec;17(6):638-42. Epub 2006 Oct 17. Review. PubMed PMID: 17049837.Discovery of human antibodies against the C5aR target using phage display technology.Huang L, Sato AK, Sachdeva M, Fleming T, Townsend S, Dransfield DT.
J Mol Recognit. 2005 Jul-Aug;18(4):327-33. PubMed PMID: 15706605.Phage display-derived peptides as therapeutic alternatives to antibodies.Ladner RC, Sato AK, Gorzelany J, de Souza M.
Drug Discov Today. 2004 Jun 15;9(12):525-9. Review. PubMed PMID: 15183160.Development of mammalian serum albumin affinity purification media by peptide phage display.Sato AK, Sexton DJ, Morganelli LA, Cohen EH, Wu QL, Conley GP, Streltsova Z, Lee SW, Devlin M, DeOliveira DB, Enright J, Kent RB, Wescott CR, Ransohoff TC, Ley AC, Ladner RC.
Biotechnol Prog. 2002 Mar-Apr;18(2):182-92. PubMed PMID: 11934284.Nitriles form mixed-coligand complexes with (99m)Tc-HYNIC-peptide.Liu G, Wescott C, Sato A, Wang Y, Liu N, Zhang YM, Rusckowski M, Hnatowich DJ.
Nucl Med Biol. 2002 Jan;29(1):107-13. PubMed PMID: 11786281.Determinants of the peptide-induced conformational change in the human class II major histocompatibility complex protein HLA-DR1.Sato AK, Zarutskie JA, Rushe MM, Lomakin A, Natarajan SK, Sadegh-Nasseri S, Benedek GB, Stern LJ.
J Biol Chem. 2000 Jan 21;275(3):2165-73. PubMed PMID: 10636922.Substitution of aspartic acid at beta57 with alanine alters MHC class II peptide binding activity but not protein stability: HLA-DQ (alpha1*0201, beta1*0302) and (alpha1*0201, beta1*0303).Sato AK, Sturniolo T, Sinigaglia F, Stern LJ.
Hum Immunol. 1999 Dec;60(12):1227-36. PubMed PMID: 10626736.Extracellular antigen processing and presentation by immature dendritic cells.Santambrogio L, Sato AK, Carven GJ, Belyanskaya SL, Strominger JL, Stern LJ.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1999 Dec 21;96(26):15056-61. PubMed PMID: 10611337; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC24772.Abundant empty class II MHC molecules on the surface of immature dendritic cells.Santambrogio L, Sato AK, Fischer FR, Dorf ME, Stern LJ. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1999 Dec 21;96(26):15050-5. PubMed PMID: 10611336; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC24771.A conformational change in the human major histocompatibility complex protein HLA-DR1 induced by peptide binding.Zarutskie JA, Sato AK, Rushe MM, Chan IC, Lomakin A, Benedek GB, Stern LJ.
Biochemistry. 1999 May 4;38(18):5878-87. PubMed PMID: 10231540.Empty and peptide-loaded class II major histocompatibility complex proteins produced by expression in Escherichia coli and folding in vitro.Frayser M, Sato AK, Xu L, Stern LJ.
Protein Expr Purif. 1999 Feb;15(1):105-14. PubMed PMID: 10024477.Steady-state and time-resolved phosphorescence of 5-hydroxy-L-tryptophan l cI repressor bound to DNA.Sato, A.K., Bitten E.R., Lambert D., and Rousslang K.W.
SPIE Proceedings 1994 2137 343-351.Steady-state and time-resolved phosphorescence of wild-type and modified bacteriophage λcI repressors.Sato AK, Bitten ER, Senear DF, Alexander Ross JB, Rousslang KW.
J Fluoresc. 1994 Jun;4(2):195-201. doi: 10.1007/BF01881888. PubMed PMID: 24233382. -
Siyuan Chen
Chief Technology Officer
Read Bio / PublicationsxSiyuan Chen
Chief Technology Officer
Dr. Chen is a strategic thinker with proven track record of identifying, developing, and commercializing innovative products in NGS, synthetic biology, and other life science areas. He joined Twist shortly after the company was founded and lead product development for both the synthetic biology and NGS product lines. Dr. Chen conceived and implemented a new product line for NGS that includes synthetic controls for SARS-CoV-2 and other infectious diseases, developed gene synthesis and NGS target enrichment biochemistries, workflow, reagent kits, and infrastructure, and built the company’s prototype DNA synthesizer in collaboration with hardware, software, and silicon engineers, which later became a production-scale machine, serving as Twist’s foundation technology. Dr. Chen is the author of numerous peer-reviewed papers and issued patents in the field of oligonucleotide synthesis and application of synthetic oligonucleotides. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and B.Sc. in Chemistry from Peking University in Beijing, China.
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Mark Daniels
Chief Legal Officer, Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer, Senior Vice President and Secretary
Read Bio / PublicationsxMark Daniels
Chief Legal Officer, Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer, Senior Vice President and Secretary
Mark joined Twist Bioscience in August 2016, bringing more than 25 years of experience as a seasoned legal officer with extensive technology and biotechnology industry expertise at Fortune 500 companies. Prior to joining Twist Bioscience, Mark was vice president, law and deputy chief corporate compliance officer at Broadcom in Irvine, California. Before that, he spent 20 years in positions of increasing responsibility in the legal department at Amgen, where his last role was vice president and associate general counsel. Mark’s law firm experience includes time at Irell & Manella in Century City, California, and Cahill Gordon & Reindel and Skadden Arps in Manhattan. Mark was a law clerk to Judge Dickran Tevrizian (ret.) on the Federal District Court in Los Angeles. He served as an adjunct professor of Law at Pepperdine University School of Law in Malibu, California where he taught Food and Drug Law. Mark received his J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School, and his B.S. with honors from Cornell University.
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Paula Green
Senior Vice President of Human Resources
Read Bio / PublicationsxPaula Green
Senior Vice President of Human Resources
Paula Green is an experienced human resources executive with a track record of developing and delivering high-impact people strategies, solutions, processes and tools that support leadership competencies to empower a high performing organization. Prior to Twist Bioscience, she served as Vice President, Head of Human Resources at QIAGEN, where she oversaw 50 human resources professionals supporting 4,000 employees through mergers and acquisitions, restructurings and other pivotal corporate transactions. She was the human resources manager for Operon Technologies (acquired by QIAGEN) where her responsibilities included creating strategy, overseeing benefits for all employees, and delivering training, recruitment and retention programs. She also worked as a Human Resources Consultant for the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco. Paula holds a BS in Organizational Behavior from the University of San Francisco.
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Bill Banyai, PhD
Senior Vice President of Advanced Development and General Manager, Data Storage
Read Bio / PublicationsxBill Banyai, PhD
Senior Vice President of Advanced Development and General Manager, Data Storage
Bill is a seasoned entrepreneur and silicon engineering expert. He has been a founder or first employee at four different start-ups and advises early stage startups. As VP of hardware engineering at Complete Genomics, he built their sequencing technology and delivered three generations of human genome chips and sequencers. Bill has twice been awarded multi-million dollar DARPA grants for the development of innovative technologies based on silicon micro machining. Bill’s career spans research, product development, and semiconductor device processing. He holds a PhD in Optical Sciences from the University of Arizona, an MS in Electrical Science from University of Michigan, and served as Staff Physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Publications
Human Genome Sequencing Using Unchained Base Reads on Self-Assembling DNA Nanoarrays.Drmanac R, Sparks AB, Callow MJ, Halpern AL, Burns NL, Kermani BG, Carnevali P, Nazarenko I, Nilsen GB, Yeung G, Dahl F, Fernandez A, Staker B, Pant KP, Baccash J, Borcherding AP, Brownley A, Cedeno R, Chen L, Chernikoff D, Cheung A, Chirita R, Curson B, Ebert JC, Hacker CR, Hartlage R, Hauser B, Huang S, Jiang Y, Karpinchyk V, Koenig M, Kong C, Landers T, Le C, Liu J, McBride CE, Morenzoni M, Morey RE, Mutch K, Perazich H, Perry K, Peters BA, Peterson J, Pethiyagoda CL, Pothuraju K, Richter C, Rosenbaum AM, Roy S, Shafto J, Sharanhovich U, Shannon KW, Sheppy CG, Sun M, Thakuria JV, Tran A, Vu D, Zaranek AW, Wu X, Drmanac S, Oliphant AR, Banyai WC, Martin B, Ballinger DG, Church GM, Reid CA.
Science. 2010 327(5961) 78-81Modular MEMS design and fabrication for an 80 x 80 transparent optical cross-connect switch.Fernandez A, Staker BP, Owens WE, Muray LP, Spallas JP, Banyai WC.
Proceedings SPIE - Optomechatronic Micro/Nano Components, Devices, and Systems. 2004 5604 208-217Scaling behavior in interference lithography.Agayan RR, Banyai WC, Fernandez AJ.
Proceedings SPIE - Emerging Lithographic Technologies II. 1998 3331 662-672Time-to-frequency converter for measuring picosecond optical pulses.Kauffman MT, Banyai WC, Godil AA, Bloom DM.
Applied Physics Letters. 1994 64(3) 270-272Applications of time lens optical systems.Kauffman MT, Godil AA, Auld BA, Banyai WC, Bloom DM.
Electronics Letters. 1993 29(3) 268-269Interaction of super-intense light fields with atoms and surfaces.Downer MC, Banyai WC, Wood WM, Anacker DC, Erskine JL.
Proceedings SPIE - Picosecond and Femtosecond Spectroscopy from Laboratory to Real World. 1990 1209 166-174Spectral shifting of femtosecond pulses in atmospheric density plasmas.Spectral shifting of femtosecond pulses in atmospheric density plasmas.
Picosecond pump-probe interferometric measurement of optical nonlinearities in channel waveguides.Finlayson N, Banyai WC, Seaton CT, Stegeman GI, O'Neill M, Cullen TJ, Ironside CN.
Optics Letters. 1989 14(10) 532-534Optical nonlinearities in CdSxSe1-x-doped glass waveguides.Finlayson N, Banyai WC, Seaton CT, Stegeman GI, O'Neill M, Cullen TJ, Ironside CN.
Journal of the Optical Society of America B: Optical Physics. 1989 6(4) 675-684Saturation of the nonlinear refractive-index change in a semiconductor-doped glass channel waveguide.Banyai WC, Finlayson N, Seaton CT, Stegeman GI, O’Neill M, Cullen TJ, Ironside CN.
Applied Physics Letters. 1989 54(6) 481-483Observation of ultrafast nonlinear polarization switching induced by polarization instability in a birefringent fiber rocking filter.Trillo S, Wabnitz S, Banyai WC, Finlayson N, Seaton CT, Stegeman GI, Stolen RH.
IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics. 1989 25(1) 104-112Picosecond switching induced by saturable absorption in a nonlinear directional coupler.Finlayson N, Banyai WC, Wright EM, Seaton CT., Stegeman GI, Cullen TJ, Ironside CN.
Applied Physics Letters. 1988 53(13) 1144-1146Picosecond nonlinear polarization switching with a fiber filter.Trillo S, Wabnitz S, Finlayson N, Banyai WC, Seaton CT, Stegeman GI, Stolen RH.
Applied Physics Letters. 1988 53(10) 837-839Nonlinear-optical effects in ion-exchanged semiconductor-doped glass waveguides.Ironside CN, Cullen TJ, Bhumbra BS, Bell JA, Banyai WC, Finlayson N, Seaton CT, Stegeman GI.
Journal of the Optical Society of America B: Optical Physics. 1988 5(2) 492-495High-speed intensity-dependent refractive index in semiconductor-doped glasses.Seaton CT, Stegeman GI, Yao SS, Karaguleff C, Fortenberry R, Gabel A, Banyai W, Assanto G.
Proceedings SPIE - Advances in Materials for Active Optics. 1985 567 132 -
Martin Kunz
Senior Vice President, Business Technologies
Read Bio / PublicationsxMartin Kunz
Senior Vice President, Business Technologies
Mr. Kunz brings more than 20 years of experience in business operations and DNA synthesis expertise to Twist. Most recently, he served as President of Eurofins Genomics US, where he implemented a new synthesis platform and was responsible for increasing production volume for both the synthesis and sequencing businesses. Prior to serving as President, he served as Chief Technology Officer where his focus was building IT off-shore capacity and designing a new IT systems landscape for genomics services. Preceding his time at Eurofins, he served as Chief Information Officer of Operon Biotechnologies, Inc. where he built a global information technology team and developed and deployed a CRM, an e-commerce and a business intelligence system. Prior to joining the biotech industry, he held a variety of positions at various companies throughout Switzerland, including sales, QA and business analyst. Mr. Kunz received his B.S. in Engineering from the H.F. Technology and Management School (TGZ) in Zurich, Switzerland.
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Erin Smith
Senior Vice President of Government Affairs and Public Policy
Read Bio / PublicationsxErin Smith
Senior Vice President of Government Affairs and Public Policy
Erin joined Twist in June 2020, bringing demonstrated leadership in furthering industry agendas by working with key stakeholders and government officials. Previously, Erin led the expansion of a government affairs program at Gilead Sciences. Before that, Erin led the creation of government affairs programs at other companies including DaVita Rx. Erin’s tenure in government service began in recent Secretary of Energy and former Governor Rick Perry’s Office as an advisor on health care policy and finance, focusing on the coordination of state and federal resources and policy. Erin serves as adjunct faculty at the University of Houston Law Center where she teaches courses on legislative strategy, government affairs and public policy. Erin earned her J.D. with honors from the University of Houston Law Center, her MPH with honors from the University of Texas Health Science Center, and her B.A. with distinguished honors from Drew University.
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Angela Bitting
Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs
Read Bio / PublicationsxAngela Bitting
Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs
As a senior communications executive with over twenty-five years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, Angela excels in crisp messaging and consistent communications, increasing visibility among key stakeholders, as well as carrying culture and communication throughout the organization. Prior to Twist, she led her own consultancy practice for 20 years, working with biopharmaceutical, medical device and diagnostics clients to create key messages to implement effective communication across external audiences. Prior to starting her own consultancy, Angela headed the investor relations and corporate communications department for Exelixis, Inc. She spent several years at Russell-Welsh, Inc., a boutique healthcare communications agency, working with a variety of public and private clients on a broad range of communications services. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in cellular and molecular biology and a Bachelor of Arts degree in business marketing, both from the University of Washington. She currently serves as VP, Provisionals for her local chapter of National Charity League.
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