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    Twist Bioscience

    Also known as TWST

    Twist Bioscience is a US company that manufactures synthetic DNA, including genes, oligonucleotide pools and antibody libraries, for research, diagnostics and therapeutics customers.[1] In the quarter to June 2026 it reported record revenue of $118.4 million, shipped about 369,000 genes and still lost $35.1 million.[2][3][4]

    Editor reviewedUpdated Synthetic biologyLife sciencesScience
    Key facts

    What it is

    Twist Bioscience is one of the largest commercial suppliers of synthetic DNA. Its products run from individual genes and oligonucleotide pools to antibody and protein libraries, sold into research, diagnostics, industrial and therapeutic markets.[1] For most synthetic biology groups it is infrastructure: the DNA ordered at the start of a project arrives from a provider of this type rather than being made in house.[3]

    Scale and trajectory

    The company reported record revenue of $118.4 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2026, more than 23% above the $96.1 million of the same quarter a year earlier, and raised full-year guidance to $456 million to $457 million, about 21% growth.[2][5] Within that, DNA synthesis and protein revenue grew to $56.6 million from $40.8 million.[1]

    Unit volume is the clearest measure of how much DNA the field consumes: about 369,000 genes shipped in the quarter, against about 237,000 a year earlier.[3] Growth has not reached profitability, with a net loss of $35.1 million, or $0.56 per diluted share, in the same quarter.[4]

    Position in the supply chain

    Providers like Twist sit between design software and the laboratory bench, which gives them two structural roles. First, their length and accuracy limits shape what designs are practical; vendors of enzymatic synthesis compete specifically on long constructs, claiming conventional approaches generally stop below about 10 kilobases.[6][7] Second, they are the chokepoint at which sequence orders can be screened, which is why the 2024 US framework ties federal research funding to buying from compliant providers.[8]

    Why the volumes matter for the field

    Gene-scale DNA is now bought rather than built, so provider throughput is a proxy for activity across synthetic biology. Rising gene shipments coincide with method changes that consume far more DNA than before: the January 2026 CLASSIC work measured hundreds of thousands to millions of designs in single experiments, a style of research that only works when DNA is cheap and fast to obtain.[9][3]

    Validating AI-designed proteins

    In 2026 Twist took on a second kind of work: checking what models design. On 18 August 2026 it disclosed in an SEC filing that anthropic had chosen it as one of the independent evaluators to produce at scale, and test the binding of, proteins designed by Anthropic’s models against 15 targets.[10] Anthropic reported binders against 14 of the 15 targets, with overall hit rates of 26.7 and 22.6 percent when designing against all targets at once and 35.1 percent when working target by target, against the 10 to 15 percent it says is typical today.[11] Each multi-target run used 48 hours of wall time and up to 12,500 NVIDIA H100 hours of compute, with 30 binders requested per target.[12]

    Those are the model developer’s own figures, published on its website alongside the filing rather than in a peer-reviewed paper, which is why this page records them as reported. The structural point is simpler and does not depend on the hit rates: computational design campaigns consume synthetic DNA and protein-expression capacity, which is the business Twist is in.[1] Disclosure: Anthropic also provides the model used to draft pages on this site.

    What the numbers imply

    Rising unit volumes with continuing losses is the signature of a capital-intensive manufacturing business still buying scale: revenue up more than 23% year on year, gene shipments up more than half, and a $35.1 million quarterly loss.[2][3][4] Guidance of about $456 million to $457 million for fiscal 2026 implies the growth is expected to continue rather than being a single strong quarter.[5]

    Open questions

    Public filings do not break out how much of the gene volume goes to genome-scale projects such as Sc2.0 versus routine cloning, so the mix of demand is not visible from outside.[1] Nor is there published evidence on how provider-side screening performance compares across vendors; a 2025 peer-reviewed analysis cited substantial variation in screening sensitivity and treatment of short oligonucleotides across the industry.[13]

    Questions readers ask

    What does Twist Bioscience sell?

    Synthetic DNA and related products, reported in a DNA Synthesis and Protein Solutions line that reached $56.6 million in the quarter to June 2026.[1]

    How many genes does it ship?

    About 369,000 in the third quarter of fiscal 2026, up from about 237,000 in the same quarter a year earlier.[3]

    Is Twist profitable?

    No. It reported a net loss of $35.1 million, or $0.56 per diluted share, for the quarter to June 2026 despite record revenue.[4][2]

    How fast is the business growing?

    Revenue rose more than 23% year on year in the June 2026 quarter and the company guided to $456-457 million for fiscal 2026, about 21% growth.[2][5]

    Does Twist test AI-designed proteins?

    It disclosed in an 18 August 2026 SEC filing that Anthropic had chosen it as one of the independent evaluators to produce at scale and test the binding of proteins designed by Anthropic's models against 15 targets.[10]

    Sources

    Each numbered claim is a statement we checked against the sources listed with it. Status shows how well established it is.

    1. [1]

      Twist Bioscience's DNA Synthesis and Protein Solutions revenue reached $56.6 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2026, up from $40.8 million a year earlier. confirmedas of 2026-08-05

    2. [2]

      Twist Bioscience reported record revenue of $118.4 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2026, more than 23% above the $96.1 million of the same quarter a year earlier. confirmedas of 2026-08-05

    3. [3]

      Twist Bioscience shipped about 369,000 synthetic genes in the third quarter of fiscal 2026, against about 237,000 in the same quarter of fiscal 2025. confirmedas of 2026-08-05

    4. [4]

      Twist Bioscience's net loss for the third quarter of fiscal 2026 was $35.1 million, or $0.56 per diluted share. confirmedas of 2026-08-05

    5. [5]

      Twist Bioscience raised its fiscal 2026 revenue expectation to $456 million to $457 million, about 21% year-on-year growth. confirmedas of 2026-08-05

    6. [6]

      Ansa Biotechnologies says industry-standard DNA synthesis approaches generally cannot produce constructs longer than about 10 kilobases. reportedas of 2025-10-01

    7. [7]

      Ansa Biotechnologies announced commercial availability of clonal DNA constructs up to 50 kilobases made on its enzymatic DNA synthesis platform, roughly 100 times longer than its first product. reportedas of 2025-10-01

    8. [8]

      The 2024 framework makes it a condition of US federal life-sciences research funding that synthetic nucleic acids, and benchtop devices that can make them, are bought only from providers and manufacturers that comply with the framework. confirmedas of 2026-10-10

    9. [9]

      On 14 January 2026 a Rice University-led team reported CLASSIC in Nature, a method that combines long-read and short-read sequencing to measure hundreds of thousands to millions of genetic circuit designs in one experiment. confirmedas of 2026-01-14

    10. [10]

      Twist Bioscience disclosed in an 18 August 2026 SEC filing that Anthropic had chosen it as one of the independent evaluators to produce at scale and test the binding of proteins designed by Anthropic's models in a campaign against 15 targets. confirmedas of 2026-08-18

    11. [11]

      Anthropic reported that its models designed binders against 14 of 15 protein targets, with overall hit rates of 26.7 percent and 22.6 percent in a multi-target setting and 35.1 percent when designing against each target separately, compared with the 10 to 15 percent it says is typical in protein design campaigns today. reportedas of 2026-08-18

    12. [12]

      Anthropic said each multi-target design run used 48 hours of wall time and up to 12,500 NVIDIA H100 hours of compute for specialised protein design and folding models, with 30 binders requested per target. reportedas of 2026-08-18

    13. [13]

      The analysis cites interview research finding substantial variation between synthesis providers in screening sensitivity, treatment of short oligonucleotides, and monitoring and evaluation. confirmedas of 2025-10-28

    14. [14]

      Sc2.0 is an international project to build the first synthetic eukaryotic genome, a redesigned version of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome plus a new-to-nature tRNA neochromosome. confirmedas of 2025-01-22

    Revision history (2)
    1. Page created.
    2. Refresh: added the August 2026 SEC disclosure that Twist was an independent evaluator for AI-designed protein binders, with the reported hit rates and compute.

    Created Oct 10, 2026. Last reviewed by an editor on Oct 10, 2026. Next scheduled review: Jan 10, 2027.

    Cite this page

    "Twist Bioscience." ContentLora, updated Oct 10, 2026. https://contentlora.com/wiki/twist-bioscience

    Spotted an error? Suggest a correction or emailcorrections@contentlora.com.

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