Emily Leproust, Ph.D., to Receive 2020 Rosalind Franklin Award

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Twist Bioscience (Nasdaq: TWST), a company enabling customers to succeed through its offering of high-quality synthetic DNA using its silicon platform, today announced that its CEO and co-founder, Emily M. Leproust, Ph.D., will receive the 2020 Rosalind Franklin Award for Leadership at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) IMPACT conference. The award will be presented on Tuesday, September 22, 2020 during a virtual fireside chat with Julianna Lemieux of Genetic Engineering News and the Rosalind Franklin Society.

“It is a great honor to receive the BIO Rosalind Franklin Award, particularly in 2020, the year she would have turned 100,” said Dr. Leproust. “At Twist, we stand on the shoulders of giants like DNA pioneer Rosalind Franklin, advancing DNA-based products to write the future of chemical, medical, food and even data storage. We continue to push the boundaries of what is possible, disrupting markets to improve health and sustainability through precisely written DNA.”

“Emily Leproust is a driven, authentic and thoughtful leader, disrupting the synthetic biology marketplace; she actively works with industry and government leaders to drive innovation and further the bioeconomy,” commented Stephanie Batchelor, vice president of BIO’s industrial and environmental section. “Twist’s focus on the power of synthetic DNA to revolutionize multiple markets directly reflects the spirit of the Rosalind Franklin Society and Award.”

About the BIO Rosalind Franklin Award

Just as Rosalind Franklin paved the way for women in the biotechnology field, the BIO Rosalind Franklin Award is presented to a pioneering woman in the industrial biotechnology and agriculture sectors who has made significant contributions to the advancement of the biobased economy and biotech innovation. The Rosalind Franklin Award will stand as a lasting memory to the legacy left by Rosalind Franklin, who was instrumental in the discovery and our greater understanding of the molecular structure of DNA, by honoring those women who too have made significant contributions in industrial biotechnology and agriculture. With this award BIO honors Rosalind Franklin’s legacy, but also those women who have shown exemplary leadership and led the way through previously uncharted territory. The Award is sponsored by the Rosalind Franklin Society, whose goal is to support and showcase the careers of eminent women in science.

Rosalind Franklin conceived and captured Photograph 51 of the "B" form of DNA in 1952, while at King's College in London. This photograph, acquired through 100 hours of X-ray exposure from a machine Dr. Franklin herself refined, revealed the structure of DNA. The discovery of the structure of DNA was the single most important advance of modern biology. James Watson and Francis Crick, working at Cambridge University, used Photograph 51 as the basis for their famous model of DNA, which earned them a Nobel Prize in 1962. Though sometimes overlooked, Rosalind Franklin’s critical work and discovery in the field has allowed the biotechnology industry to become what it is today.

About Twist Bioscience Corporation

Twist Bioscience is a leading and rapidly growing synthetic biology 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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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. Such 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 risks and uncertainties of the ability to attract new customers and retain and grow sales from existing customers; risks and uncertainties of rapidly changing technologies and extensive competition in synthetic biology could make the products Twist Bioscience is developing obsolete or non-competitive; uncertainties of the retention of a significant customer; 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 further 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 Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q dated August 12, 2020. 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.