Enzymatic DNA synthesis: companies, startups and research

Dna Script, Codexis, Ansa Biotechnologies Inc. and Molecular Assemblies, Inc. are among the companies working on enzymatic DNA synthesis. Dna Script develops the SYNTAX benchtop printer for in-house oligonucleotide production. Codexis engineers terminal transferase and reports work on its ECO Synthesis platform. Ansa focuses on longer, more complex sequences, while Molecular Assemblies develops controlled nucleotide addition using terminal transferase.

Dna Script and Ansa Biotechnologies Inc. are two startups with active enzymatic DNA synthesis programs in the available facts. Dna Script develops the SYNTAX benchtop printer and uses controlled nucleotide addition. Ansa aims to synthesize longer and more complex sequences. The facts identify four startups in the field overall, but do not provide comparative performance or commercial data to rank them.

Harvard University, Shandong University and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences are active research organizations in this field. A Harvard-led team reported parallel synthesis on a semiconductor chip in July 2026. Shandong University researchers contributed to semi-rational engineering of terminal transferase, while the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences has reviewed synthesis, assembly and error-correction workflows.

The recorded grant total is $7,818,320 across 6 grants since 2020. Separately, ARPA-H awarded $26 million in August 2026 to a program focused on scalable cell-free DNA bioproduction. These figures come from different datasets and scopes, so they should not be treated as a single combined funding total.

New England Biolabs and Enliven Inc. are the leading listed patent holders, with 3 patents each. Microsoft, Duke University and Dna Script each have 2 listed patents. The figures describe the patent-holder counts in the available facts and do not establish the scope, status or commercial importance of each patent.

Patent activity declined in the latest 12-month comparison: the facts report 22 patents in the 24-month window and patent growth of -77.8%. Publication activity moved in the opposite direction, with 87 publications last year and growth of 24.3%. These indicators suggest rising research output alongside a contraction in recent patent filings.

Recent developments include Harvard’s July 2026 semiconductor-chip synthesis demonstration and two August 2026 studies on TdT redesign and eMutS-based error correction. The chip work reported 64 distinct sequences written in parallel using a water-based process. The TdT study targets DNA data storage, while the eMutS system addresses fidelity through magnetic separation.

The main approaches include TdT with blocked nucleotides, TdT-controlled extension, template-directed polymerases, enzymatic ligation and cell-free DNA production. Blocked nucleotides enable base-by-base control but require blocking and deblocking steps. Controlled extension tunes enzyme activity, while template-directed polymerases rely on a sequence template. Ligation joins prepared fragments, and cell-free production focuses on manufacturing DNA outside living cells.

Applications include synthetic biology and gene construction, gene therapy and viral vectors, DNA data storage, diagnostics and sequencing, and nucleic acid therapeutics. Synthetic biology and gene construction have 99 associated documents in the facts, while DNA data storage has 51. The data-storage application is growing, with reported activity growth of 68.4% in the latest comparison.

The United States leads the listed activity, with 797 documents, followed by the United Kingdom with 297 and China with 221. Japan and Germany are also among the leading countries, with 189 and 182 documents respectively. Country figures can overlap because documents may be associated with organizations in more than one country.