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GeneArt® DNA Assembly - Meet the Inventor Series

2,572 views · Published 1 May 2012 · 4:39 · Indexed 27 September 2026

Channel: Thermo Fisher Scientific · 2012 · Science & Technology

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Learn more at http://www.lifetechnologies.com/geneart

This is an interview with Dr Federico Katzen from Life Technologies where he discusses his teams scientific discoveries and inventions that lead to products from Life Technologies.
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My name is Federico Katzen, I'm a Senior Staff Scientist here at Life Technologies, in the synthetic biology business segment. 

How did you develop the GeneArt® DNA Assembly kit?

The invention came from the customer insights; they told us what they needed. They needed a cloning system that is sequence independent, in other words a system that shouldn't rely on sites in the sequence, like restriction sites. At the same time they needed a system that doesn't leave scars on the final construct; like for example restriction sites as well. 

And finally they needed, at the same time, a system that can assemble a variety of fragments, not just one at a time but multiple fragments at a time. So what we realized after a few iterations is that, experimental iterations, is that the homologous recombination would be the solution. So what we've done is to implement two types of solutions, one in-vivo and one in-vitro. The one in in-vitro is the GeneArt® Seamless Assembly kit and the one in-vivo is the GeneArt® High-Order Genetic Assembly kit.

Tell us about the GeneArt® DNA Assembly portfolio

So the GeneArt® Assembly portfolio is essentially composed of three major products, first the GeneArt® Seamless Assembly kit, which a kit for assembly up to 4 DNA fragments in a seamless way relying on homologous recombination but it works with a purified enzyme mix so the assembly's on in-vitro. 

The second kit is the GeneArt® High-Order Genetic Assembly, which also relies on homologous recombination but the whole assembly is done within the cells, it's done by yeast, so a few advantages come with these kits which is first of all the dynamic range is much wider, it can go from an assembly of a few base pairs up to hundred of kilobases. As well this kit can assemble fragments that do not share homology between them. 


The final product is Site-Directed Mutagenesis kit that relies on the in-vitro homologous recombination properties of the first kit; which is an enzyme that actually grabs the end of PCR fragments and stitches them together. 

Is there anything that compares to the GeneArt® DNA Assembly tools?

As I mentioned before we have three products as part of the portfolio. The first one is the GeneArt® High Order Genetic Assembly kit, as far as I understand there is no other similar product on the market, so we are unique in that respect.

As far as the second product goes, the GeneArt® Seamless Assembly kit there are other similar products on the market, however we have some enhanced benefit, with respect to cloning efficiency and simplicity. 

The third product, the Mutagenesis kit there are other competitors on the market but the fact that our kit relies on a recombination reaction that boosts the Mutagenesis to a much higher level.

Learn more at http://www.lifetechnologies.com/geneart

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