Product design and development firm Cambridge Consultants and SGI-DNA, a Synthetic Genomics Inc. company in San Diego, CA, USA, today announce that they will be installing the first BioXp™ 3200 System in the UK. The implementation will drive forward the use of automation in the emerging fields of biodesign and synthetic biology.

The BioXp™ 3200 System is the world’s first benchtop automated genomic workstation that rapidly synthesizes high-quality, double-stranded DNA fragments and clones into any vector in an overnight run.

Cambridge Consultants is an early leader in the fast-emerging synthetic biology sector. With its in-house facilities, delivering rapid turnaround and innovative products, the BioXp™ 3200 System is a natural fit for the laboratory workflow and has numerous applications, including protein production, antibody library generation, and cell engineering.

As well as medical breakthroughs, this could also unlock a whole host of novel applications in areas such as consumer products, novel foods and biofuels.

Biodesign has wide-ranging impact and is dependent on the speed and efficiency of generating and analyzing genes. Cambridge Consultants is working with a variety of companies to help improve the systems and equipment used in biodesign; the BioXp™ 3200 System will help researchers in pursuit of solving these challenges.

Richard Hammond, head of synthetic biology at Cambridge Consultants said­­, “We believe that the future of biodesign lies in automating processes and in turn increasing experimental throughput and reducing the time needed to develop new products. SGI-DNA shares this philosophy, and the BioXp™ 3200 instrument is a great example of this approach benefitting the synthetic biology community.”

SGI-DNA President Nathan Wood said, “The future of scientific advancement is automation. By installing the BioXp™ 3200 System at Cambridge Consultants’ innovative and world-class laboratories, more groups in Europe can benefit from custom DNA projects.”