The company that took a 40-year-old chemistry problem, handed it to an enzyme, and put the whole thing on a lab bench.
For about four decades, the way a scientist got custom DNA barely changed. You designed a sequence on a computer, sent it to a specialized supplier, and waited. Days would pass. A vial would arrive in the mail. If the order was wrong, or backordered, the experiment stalled and the clock reset. The chemistry behind that vial - a process called phosphoramidite synthesis - relied on harsh solvents and hazardous reagents, and it was very good at what it did. It just wasn't fast, and it wasn't something you could run next to your pipettes.
DNA Script, founded in 2014 near Paris, was built around a stubborn question: what if the DNA never had to leave the building at all? What if a researcher could print it on-site, on-demand, in an afternoon?
The answer the company arrived at was to stop fighting biology and start copying it. Living cells don't build DNA with organic solvents; they use enzymes. DNA Script's founders - Thomas Ybert, Sylvain Gariel, and Xavier Godron - spent close to three years, in partnership with Institut Pasteur and the Institut Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, engineering an enzymatic method that could be controlled precisely enough to write any sequence a scientist typed.
The result, launched commercially in 2021, is the SYNTAX System: the first benchtop DNA printer powered by Enzymatic DNA Synthesis. It sits on a bench, takes under 15 minutes of hands-on setup, and produces up to 96 ready-to-use DNA oligonucleotides in parallel - in as little as six hours.
Ybert, a physicist by training, once described synthetic DNA as "the next silicon." A decade and roughly $315 million in funding later, DNA Script is trying to make that comparison literal: put the means of production on the desk, and let scientists iterate at the speed of thought instead of the speed of shipping.
"Our vision is to make biology programmable."
DNA Script calls the SYNTAX System a "DNA printer," and the metaphor is earned. You design a sequence on a screen; the machine builds the actual molecule. Its Enzymatic DNA Synthesis (EDS) technology uses an engineered enzyme paired with a 3' reverse terminator - a chemical switch that turns nucleotide incorporation on and off, one base at a time, so the enzyme writes exactly the sequence you asked for.
Type or import your oligo sequences into the SYNTAX software.
Insert a reagent kit and consumables - under 15 minutes hands-on.
The enzyme writes 96 oligos in parallel, base by base.
Ready-to-use DNA in as little as 6 hours - no extra handling.
On-demand synthesis removes the wait, the shipping, and the backorders that stall experiments when DNA is outsourced.
Template-free enzymatic synthesis avoids the hazardous solvents of traditional phosphoramidite methods.
Because DNA is made on-site, proprietary and confidential sequences never leave the lab.
That combination is the crux of DNA Script's pitch. Rivals such as Twist Bioscience approach synthesis from a silicon-manufacturing angle and have signaled their own enzymatic ambitions; Ansa Biotechnologies offers enzymatic DNA as a service for ultra-long clonal constructs. What distinguishes DNA Script is placing the enzymatic instrument itself on the customer's bench - turning DNA synthesis from a purchased service into an in-house capability.
A fully integrated, automated benchtop DNA printer that synthesizes up to 96 oligos in parallel and delivers them ready-to-use, with under 15 minutes of setup.
Reagents for parallel synthesis of 96 oligos up to 120nt for high-accuracy work - gene assembly, protein mutagenesis, CRISPR gene editing.
Reagents for 96 ready-to-use oligos up to 80nt for everyday molecular biology workflows.
The proprietary template-free method - an engineered enzyme plus a 3' reverse terminator - at the heart of everything DNA Script builds.
DNA Script sells B2B: it places the SYNTAX instrument in labs and earns recurring revenue from the proprietary reagent and consumable kits that run on it - a classic razor-and-blades model, supported by a widening network of global distribution partners.
Its customers span academic and industry research labs, biopharma companies, genomics core facilities, and public-health organizations working in synthetic biology, CRISPR, diagnostics, and mRNA vaccine development.
Illustrative market outlook - enzymatic DNA synthesis (third-party estimates):
Approximate industry projections; not company guidance.
Physicist and founding CEO who envisioned synthetic DNA as "the next silicon." Now Chief Scientific Officer, leading research and innovation.
Co-founded DNA Script in 2014 to reinvent how nucleic acids are designed and manufactured.
Co-founder involved in building the enzymatic synthesis platform from the ground up.
Ybert, Gariel, and Godron start the company near Paris to reinvent DNA synthesis.
Core template-free method developed over nearly three years with Institut Pasteur and IPGG.
The first benchtop DNA printer powered by enzymatic synthesis ships.
Led by Coatue and Catalio to fund commercialization.
Second tranche brings total raised to roughly $315M; T. Rowe Price and Baillie Gifford join.
Commercial leadership takes over; Thomas Ybert becomes Chief Scientific Officer.
MoU with EVA Pharma and Quantoom for Africa's mRNA platform; CEPI backs automated DNA templates.
MoU to build Africa's first end-to-end, digital-to-biologics mRNA production platform for vaccines and therapeutics.
~US$4.7M committed to automate manufacturing of synthetic DNA templates for faster pandemic response.
Agreements expanding SYNTAX platform access across Asia-Pacific markets.
Founding research collaborations where the core enzymatic technology was developed.