Reliable Assembly of Cloned DNA Fragments

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Our goal in this project is to develop a uniform method for assembling large DNA molecules by ligation of sticky-ended fragments, regardless of the sequence, the fragment length, or the presence of restriction enzyme sites. If we are successful, this technology could be used to assemble full-length cDNAs, mammalian genes, knockout constructs, gene clusters, and even whole BACs or bacterial genomes. The combination of a universal fragment assembly technology with Blue Heron's core technology, gene synthesis, will provide researchers with rapid, cost-effective access to any DNA sequence, regardless of size or sequence composition. It will speed the pace of research by allowing scientists to focus on experiments rather than cutting and pasting DNA molecules. It wll also enable new projects that would be impossible or impractically expensive without full control of large DNA sequences.