Twist Bioscience Launches Rapid Antibody Screening Service
The new service uses cell-free expression to deliver purified antibody samples for drug discovery in as little as five days.
Updated on Oct. 29, 2026 in Biotech
Live Poll
Do you trust that faster, AI-driven drug development will lead to better health outcomes?
Twist Bioscience has launched a new high-throughput antibody screening service designed to accelerate the evaluation of drug candidates. This service is now available to researchers and leverages cell-free protein expression to expedite the characterization process.
Why it matters
As AI-driven drug discovery generates larger libraries of candidates, researchers face bottlenecks in physical screening. This service addresses that by streamlining the production and testing of antibodies to meet the increased demand for rapid validation.
The service provides purified full-length IgG antibodies in quantities ranging from 5 to 20 micrograms. It utilizes the ALiCE eukaryotic expression system to perform binding characterization via surface plasmon resonance.
The players
Twist Bioscience
A biotechnology company specializing in synthetic DNA production and high-throughput protein engineering services.
LenioBio
The developer of the ALiCE eukaryotic cell-free protein expression system.
The details
The platform employs a high-throughput cell-free production process, which bypasses the need for traditional cell culture steps. By using LenioBio's ALiCE system—a eukaryotic platform that replicates complex protein folding outside of a living cell—the service produces full-length IgG, scFv-Fc, and VHH-Fc antibody formats. This workflow allows for direct physical testing of candidates identified by AI models to confirm binding performance.
Timeline
October 29, 2026: Twist Bioscience launched the new antibody screening service.
The Tech Race
This development follows a trend of integrating AI-generated candidate libraries with rapid, automated physical validation workflows. It positions Twist Bioscience to better serve firms relying on AI protein design to compress early-stage development cycles.
Biotech researchers can now access 5 to 20 microgram aliquots of purified antibodies with a five-day turnaround to validate hits from their screening programs. The service is available now, though users should contact the provider to confirm capacity for specific antibody formats.
The takeaway
This launch highlights the industry-wide transition toward on-demand, cell-free protein validation for high-volume candidate screening. Researchers should monitor whether this model significantly reduces the time-to-lead compared to standard in-house expression efforts.
Further reading
For broader trends in protein synthesis and screening, see our coverage of Biotech.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Pharmafocusasia.
Live Poll
Do you trust that faster, AI-driven drug development will lead to better health outcomes?
