Digital to biological converter

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9718060-B2
Application number	US-201313969215-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 16, 2013
Priority date	Aug 16, 2012
Publication date	Aug 1, 2017
Grant date	Aug 1, 2017

Abstract

The present invention provides a system for receiving biological sequence information and activating the synthesis of a biological entity. The system has a receiving unit for receiving a signal encoding biological sequence information transmitted from a transmitting unit. The transmitting unit can be present at a remote location from the receiving unit. The system also has an assembly unit connected to the receiving unit, and the assembly unit assembles the biological entity according to the biological sequence information. Thus, according to the present invention biological sequence information can be digitally transmitted to a remote location and the information converted into a biological entity, for example a protein useful as a vaccine, immediately upon being received by the receiving unit and without further human intervention after preparing the system for receipt of the information. The invention is useful, for example, for rapidly responding to viral and other biological threats that are specific to a particular locale.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An automated system for receiving biological sequence information and activating the synthesis of a functional biological entity, comprising:
a receiving unit for receiving a signal encoding biological sequence information transmitted from a transmitting unit, the transmitting unit present at a remote location from the receiving unit;
an assembly unit connected to the receiving unit, for assembling the biological entity according to the biological sequence information, the assembly unit comprising or connected to vessels containing biological building block molecules and containing components for transporting reagents within the system and for executing steps in an automated method for synthesizing the functional biological entity through multiple levels of biological assembly, wherein the multiple levels of biological assembly comprise 1) the synthesis of a plurality of oligonucleotides by linking nucleotides or nucleoside phosphoramidites, and 2) the assembly of one or more dsDNA molecule(s) by joining the plurality of oligonucleotides;
wherein the receiving unit receives the biological sequence information and provides it to the assembly unit, and the assembly unit comprises components for the assembly of the biological entity in an automated method.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the transmitting unit and the receiving unit are computers that are part of a computer network.

3. The automaled system of claim 2 wherein the transmitting unit is at least 10 miles away from the receiving unit.

4. The automated system of claim 1 wherein the transmitting unit is at least 10 miles away from the receiving unit.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the biological building blocks are dNTPs or nucleoside phosphoramidites.

6. The system of claim 5 further comprising programming instructions for assembling the dNTPs or nucleoside phosphoramidites into a set of oligonucleotides according to the biological sequence information.

7. The system of claim 6 further comprising one or more vessels containing reagents for the transcription and/or translation of the DNA molecule into a biological product.

8. The system of claim 6 further comprising programming instructions for assembling the set of oligonucleotides into a DNA molecule.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the assembly unit further converts the biological entity into a biological product.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the biological product is a virus particle or a portion of a virus particle.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the virus particle or portion of a virus particle comprises a protein antigen.

12. The system of claim 9 wherein the assembly unit further comprises or is connected to a vessel comprising a host cell.

13. The automated system of claim 8 wherein the DNA molecule is at least 500 bp in length.

14. The system of claim 4 wherein the biological sequence information encodes a nucleic acid encoding for at least a portion of a virus particle or bacteriophage.

15. The system of claim 4 wherein the biological building blocks are nucleoside phosporamidites.

16. The system of claim 1 further comprising programming instructions for performing steps of an automated method in distinct zones of a reaction container.

17. A method of synthesizing a functional biological entity comprising:
receiving biological sequence information from a transmitting unit in an automated system for synthesizing the functional biological entity, the automated system comprising:
a receiving unit for receiving a signal encoding the biological sequence information transmitted from the transmitting unit, the receiving unit present at a remote location from the transmitting unit;
an assembly unit connected to the receiving unit, for assembling the functional biological entity according to the biological sequence information, the assembly unit comprising or connected to vessels containing biological building block molecules and reagents for performing reactions to synthesize the functional biological entity through multiple levels of biological assembly from the biological building block molecules, wherein the multiple levels of biological assembly comprise 1) the synthesis of a plurality of oligonucleotides by linking nucleotides or nucleoside phosphoramidites, and 2) the assembly of one or more dsDNA molecule(s) by joining the plurality of oligonucleotides;
wherein the assembly unit is configured to assemble the biological entity in accordance with the biological sequence information; and
synthesizing the functional biological entity in an automated method.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the transmitting unit and the receiving unit are computers that are part of a computer network.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the assembly unit is prepared for assembly of the functional biological entity prior to receiving the biological sequence information.

20. The method of claim 17 wherein the biological building blocks are dNTPs or nucleoside phosphoramidites.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein the system further comprises programming instructions for assembling the dNTPs or nucleoside phosphoramidites into a set of oligonucleotides according to the biological sequence information.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the system further comprises programming instructions for assembling the set of oligonucleotides into a DNA molecule.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein the system comprises one or more vessels and reagents for the transcription of the DNA molecule into an RNA molecule.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the system further comprises one or more vessels and reagents for the in vitro translation of the RNA molecule into a functional protein or peptide.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein the functional protein or peptide is a viral protein or peptide.

26. The method of claim 20 wherein the biological building blocks are nucleoside phosphoramidites.

27. The method of claim 17 wherein the functional biological entity is a DNA molecule.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein the DNA molecule is larger than 5 kb.

29. The method of claim 17 wherein the biological sequence information encodes for a nucleic acid molecule encoding for at least a portion of a virus particle.

30. The method of claim 17 wherein the building block molecules are linked in an in vitro reaction to form building block polymers.

31. The method of claim 30 wherein the building block molecules are nucleotides or nucleoside phosphoramidites and the building block polymers are oligonucleotides.

32. The method of claim 31 further comprising transporting oligonucleotides from a first zone of a reaction container to a second zone of the reaction container.

33. The method of claim 31 further comprising performing one step of the method in a first zone of the reaction container and a second step of the method in a second zone of the reaction container.

34. The method of method of claim 29 comprising a DNA assembly step and a RNA transcription step.

35. The method of claim 34 the DNA assembly step is performed in a first reaction zone of the reaction container and the RNA transcription step is performed in a second reaction zone of the reaction container.

Assignees

• Synthetic Genomics Inc

Inventors

• Venter J Craig
• Gibson Daniel
• Gill John E

Classifications

• A61P31/16

  for influenza or rhinoviruses · CPC title

• C12P19/34 Primary

  Polynucleotides, e.g. nucleic acids, oligoribonucleotides · CPC title

• C12N7/00

  Viruses; Bacteriophages; Compositions thereof; Preparation or purification thereof (preparing medicinal viral antigen or antibody compositions, e.g. virus vaccines, A61K39/00) · CPC title

• C12N15/1089

  Design, preparation, screening or analysis of libraries using computer algorithms · CPC title

• C07K14/005

  from viruses · CPC title