GenScript Biotech Acquires CustomArray to Expand Synthetic Biology Product Portfolio

 GenScript® Biotech Corp., the leading global provider of gene synthesis services based in Piscataway, announced that it and GenScript USA Holding Inc., its wholly owned subsidiary, have entered into an agreement to acquire 100 percent of the issued shares of CustomArray Inc., a privately held DNA microarray company that provides customized oligonucleotide pools and microarrays to many of the world’s leading academic and industrial organizations for applications in targeted sequencing, complex DNA libraries, synthetic biology, shRNA libraries, and CRISPR, from all of its shareholders. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“The acquisition of CustomArray further strengthens our synthetic biology product portfolio with a unique technology that we believe will enhance our customers’ ability to accelerate innovation in drug discovery and development, genome editing, protein engineering, and synthetic biology,” said GenScript CEO Frank Zhang, Ph.D. “We welcome the entire CustomArray team to the GenScript family and look forward to working with them to enhance the market penetration and value of this important technology.”

CustomArray uses semiconductor chip technology to electrochemically synthesize DNA right on the chip surface. The patented and proprietary technology allows the creation of large numbers of different oligonucleotides in a highly parallel, high-throughput, high-density, and cost-effective manner. CustomArray, as a market leader in oligonucleotide pools, with one of the world’s leading array-based synthesis technologies, strengthens GenScript’s leadership in synthetic biology, such as gene synthesis, CRISPR library, shRNA library, enzyme and antibody engineering.

“GenScript’s innovation, entrepreneurial spirit, and aggressive growth, along with its depth of marketplace knowledge and reach, make it a highly desirable partner for CustomArray,” said CustomArray CEO Brooke Anderson. “We are excited to join the GenScript team and excited to capitalize on the opportunity to bring our technology to a much broader range of customers and applications than we could ever reach on our own.  We look forward to providing products to innovators in the fields of genome editing, biomaterials, agriculture, and more.”