A Agilent Technologies

By Brian Gormley and Patience Haggin 

Since 2013 Emily Leproust has raised $133 million in equity for Twist Bioscience Corp., a startup she formed to tap into rising demand for genes used to make biopharmaceuticals and other products. Now her former employer is suing her and Twist for allegedly stealing trade secrets.

Twist says its semiconductor-based system enables it to manufacture genes faster and more cheaply than conventional approaches, which use 96-well plates. Agilent Technologies Inc., where Dr. Leproust worked just before launching Twist, alleges that she built this system through secrets gained at Agilent.

Twist didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. Agilent declined to comment on the pending litigation.

Agilent, which also alleges that she poached its employees, is suing to prevent Twist from using trade secrets and confidential information, according to a complaint filed Wednesday in Superior Court in Santa Clara County.

Companies use genes to engineer microbes to produce molecules used in drugs, foods, fragrances and other products. Last month, Twist said it had shipped 65 million base pairs of DNA to some 100 users through its alpha launch program. Twist customers include venture-backed Ginkgo Bioworks Inc., which agreed last year to buy 100 million base pairs of synthetic DNA from Twist.

With interest in its technology picking up, San Francisco-based Twist last month raised $61 million in equity and $20 million in debt ahead of a beta launch planned for this year. Investors included ARCH Venture Partners, Illumina Inc. and individuals such as Yuri Milner.

Twist is one of several startups venture firms have funded in the emerging synthetic-biology field, which promises to enable development of new products in several industries. Others include Twist competitor Gen9 Inc., whose investors include Agilent, which first backed the Cambridge, Mass., startup in April 2013.

Agilent said it hired Dr. Leproust to work on developing the chemical aspects of the inkjet writer used to synthesize oligonucleotides, the building blocks of genes. She worked there from 2000 to 2013, according to the complaint.

By the end of her tenure, she supervised a team of scientists and engineers responsible for development and implementation of oligo synthesis and oligo library synthesis technology, the complaint said. Responding to growing interest in synthetic biology, Agilent said it planned to expand its ability to provide customers with fast and affordable access to large quantities of custom-made genes.

Agilent alleges that Dr. Leproust used her knowledge of Agilent technology to create Twist, and registered a domain name for the company in February 2012. Domain registration records from domain look-up site Who.is confirm that the Web address TwistBioscience.com was registered on Feb. 4, 2012, to a registrant Emily Leproust of Twist Bioscience.

In February 2013, while Agilent executives contemplated an investment in Gen9, Dr. Leproust filed articles of incorporation for Twist, according to the complaint. The complaint also alleges that she pitched venture-capital investors on the idea for Twist before she left Agilent.

In April 2013, Dr. Leproust resigned from Agilent, according to the complaint. She wiped her company smartphone clean of any data and removed the smart card upon returning it to Agilent, according to the complaint. In the next three months, Twist raised nearly $5 million in funding from investors.

Twist filed two provisional patent applications in August 2013, listing the company's co-founders as the inventors. Agilent alleges that Twist couldn't have developed the technology described in these applications over the course of its then-four-month lifespan. The company filed additional patent applications in 2015.

Agilent alleges in the complaint that Twist's technology disclosed in its patent applications and presentations to investors misappropriated Agilent's proprietary technology in violation of the agreement Dr. Leproust signed upon her hire.

"Twist didn't and couldn't have independently developed the technology to synthesize oligos at this size and density in its two years of existence," reads Agilent's complaint.

Agilent also alleges that Dr. Leproust recruited and hired 10 employees from Agilent in violation of her original contract, which barred her from recruiting Agilent's employees for two years after she left the company.

"This was a highly orchestrated scheme to misappropriate Agilent's intellectual property and violate its valuable rights. We will vigorously protect the company's interests," said Agilent's lead attorney, Daniel Petrocelli, a partner at law firm O'Melveny & Myers.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 03, 2016 21:29 ET (02:29 GMT)

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