Traditional DNA synthesis methods have some problems, such as low efficiency, high cost, low scalability and low accuracy. With the increase of DNA length, the synthesis of error-free DNA becomes more and more difficult. Despite various improvements in DNA synthesis methods, the rapid acquisition of high-fidelity DNA on a large scale remains an important challenge.
To solve these problems, we developed htDNA-chip®, a high-throughput DNA synthesis technology platform based on semiconductor silicon chips. htDNA-chip® greatly reduces the volume of DNA synthesis process compared to traditional methods, while increasing the throughput by 1,000 times. Up to 9,600 genes can be synthesized on a small single silicon chip, and the resulting DNA is orders of magnitude more accurate.
The silicon chip of our htDNA-chip® technology platform is equipped with a special photothermal conversion device, which converts light into different temperatures under the irradiation of light. At different temperatures, the growing DNA strands are selectively deprotected, allowing us to tap in bases as needed. So through our htDNA-chip® technology platform, we can control the synthesis of different sequences of DNA at different synthesis reaction sites by photothermal conversion.
Our technology is based on a novel silicon array, manufactured using semiconductor micromachining technology, capable of independently controlling up to 10,000 miniaturized reaction sites. This is why we can synthesize large amounts of DNA on a chip quickly and efficiently.
Because we control the reaction at each site by controlling temperature by light, each site is independent of the other, and the sequence of synthesized DNA varies with temperature. As a result, we can accurately control the synthesis of large amounts of DNA.
Our high-throughput htDNA-chip® platform can simultaneously synthesize tens of thousands or more of DNA on a chip size surface, significantly reducing the cost compared to traditional and inefficient DNA synthesis methods.
Our high-throughput htDNA-chip® platform allows for a significant reduction in the amount of solvents used, thus enabling a reduction in environmental pollution.