CODA Genomics, Inc. Announces Industry's First Synthetic Gene Kit

October 31, 2005 – Irvine, CA -- CODA Genomics, Inc.(CODA), a synthetic biology and protein expression company, announced today broad introduction of the industry's first synthetic DNA Gene Kit. Using this kit, researchers can for the first time easily assemble synthetic genes of interest in their own labs. The processes by which the gene sequences are optimized and assembled are so robust that CODA guarantees their assembly into a single working gene with no errors. In most cases, CODA will also guarantee that the gene will express the unique protein coded by the gene.

CODA (Computationally Optimized DNA Assembly), the invention which makes such robust assembly possible, is a rigorous computational method incorporating supercomputer-like computation that allows researchers to optimize the assembly of chemically synthesized genes so thoroughly that only individual gene products are created from a pooled self-assembly of DNA. Such processes in the past involved costly and time-consuming sequencing and sequence correction, a weakness that has kept synthetic genes mostly in the realm of boutique research service companies. With CODA, any researcher can buy a custom kit and assemble his/her own unique genes in a few days. Once made, CODA's genes also have the highest probably of actually expressing the target protein of the gene, because CODA also incorporates it's patented Translation Engineering TM into the design of the gene. Translational Engineering optimizes the gene for organism-specific expression that satisfy the organism's preferences for both the DNA code to make a given amino acid and different DNA signals necessary to control the timing of protein manufacture.

CODA Genomics, Inc. was started in 2004 to commercialize the DNA assembly and protein expression optimization work from the laboratories of Drs. Richard Lathrop and G. Wesley Hatfield at the University of California, Irvine. The basic science was developed under an Information Technology Research (ITR) award to Drs. Lathrop and Hatfield from the National Science Foundation (NSF). CODA's motto, “Synthetics Genes—Guaranteed to Express.” is put into practice with the company's CODExpressTM Gene Kits and Services. In addition, CODA offers collaborations for protein drug and production engineering based on large structure/activity studies of related proteins. These technologies allow researchers to assemble DNA constructs reliably, more quickly, less expensively, and on a scale never before possible.