Cambridge, UK – EVONETIX LTD (‘Evonetix’), the synthetic biology company bringing semiconductor technology to DNA synthesis, today announced the appointment of Paul Beastall as Chair of the Board of Directors. Paul was previously a Non-Executive Director at Evonetix, having joined the Board in 2020. His new appointment to Chair will see him take a more involved role in guiding product development strategy. This announcement follows the Company’s recent patent grant for technology enabling thermally-controlled DNA synthesis.

Paul has over 20 years’ experience in product development, global industrial and consumer markets, and strategic consultancy, previously holding senior positions at start-ups, large corporations, government, and consultancy businesses. His most recent role was Strategy Director at Cambridge Consultants, where he worked with the executive team to develop business strategy and partnerships, before joining Evonetix as Non-Executive Chair.

Paul holds a master’s degree in electronic systems engineering from the University of York and is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Paul Beastall, Chair of Board of Directors at Evonetix, said: “Evonetix’s integrated desktop platform will be pivotal to the evolution of synthetic biology. The Company’s radical approach to gene synthesis enables the large-scale assembly of high fidelity gene-length DNA. Having been involved with Evonetix since June 2020, I have witnessed first-hand the technical milestones being achieved by the team. I can see the potential impact that the Company’s technology will have, and I am delighted to increase my involvement.”

Matt Hayes, Chief Technology Officer at Evonetix, commented: “Paul’s experience as Strategy Director and specialism in the commercialisation of innovative technologies make him a key asset to our Board. With Paul’s guidance, we will continue to develop our gene assembly technologies and transform the accessibility and usage of DNA synthesis. I look forward to working with him in his new position as we enter the next stages of product development.”

For more information about Evonetix, please visit: www.evonetix.com.

About Evonetix Ltd – www.evonetix.com

Evonetix is reimagining biology by developing a radically different approach to gene synthesis – a highly parallel desktop platform to synthesise DNA at unprecedented accuracy and scale. The technology builds on scalability and density from the semiconductor industry to deliver a step-change in performance for the production of DNA. The company’s platform will place DNA synthesis in the hands of every researcher and change how DNA is accessed, made and used. This new paradigm in gene synthesis will facilitate and enable the rapidly growing field of synthetic biology.

The proprietary Evonetix approach utilises a silicon chip, made by MEMS processing, that integrates physics with biology, and controls the synthesis of DNA at many thousands of independently controlled reaction sites or ‘pixels’ on the chip surface in a highly parallel fashion. The approach is compatible with both chemical and enzymatic DNA synthesis. Following synthesis, strands are assembled on-chip into double-stranded DNA in a process that identifies and removes errors, providing accuracy that is several orders of magnitude better than the conventional approach.

The Evonetix DNA writer will be a desktop device, available to every researcher, and providing scalable, accurate DNA synthesis to enable biological systems to be engineered with unprecedented accuracy and scale – this is third-generation DNA synthesis.