The Concordia Genome Foundry is a biofoundry—a specialized laboratory custom-built with automation and analytics infrastructure to achieve high-throughput prototyping and testing of biological systems. The Foundry engages with researchers in academia and industry, in collaborative or service-based agreements, with the aim of accelerating innovation in synthetic biology and biomanufacturing. In so doing, it strives to be a driver of growth in the Canadian and global bioeconomies. Here we provide an overview of our current capacities with respect to DNA assembly, microbial cell work, and mammalian cell line development, along with case studies: (i) a 384-plasmid assembly completed in under two weeks; (ii) a 96-plasmid assembly that required maxi-prep quality DNA for transfection of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs); (iii) individual nucleofection of iPSCs with 96 prime-editing plasmids, followed by direct comparisons of prime-editing efficiencies across all 96 plasmid designs.

Co-authors: Kevin Jacquet, Flavia Araujo, Ryo Niwa, James Bagley, Angela Quach, Raha Omran, Benjamin Scott, Knut Woltjen, Vincent Martin