mbDNA is Touchlight’s revolutionary enzymatic circular single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) platform, uniquely engineered for safe, efficient, and flexible gene editing. Free from phage or bacterial-derived elements, and fully customisable, mbDNA is a purpose-built template for homology-directed repair (HDR) that consistently delivers outstanding knock-in efficiency and cell viability, across challenging immune and stem cells.
OUR TECHNOLOGY
Powering Next-Generation
Cell & Gene Therapies with Circular Single-Stranded mbDNA™
OVERVIEW
mbDNA: Pioneering the Future of ssDNA-Based Medicine
The limitations of viral delivery, such as restricted payload capacity, toxicity, and immunogenicity, present challenges to progress in gene editing.
Our mbDNA technology is designed to overcome these challenges and deliver:
Superior cell viability: Reduced immunogenicity and low toxicity, minimises cell stress
Unmatched efficiency: High and consistent knock-in rates across donors, can support large insertions (up to 20kb)
Flexible delivery: Supports both ex vivo and in vivo delivery, including electroporation or lipid nanoparticles
Scalability: Achieve scalable production leveraging existing enzymatic DNA amplification expertise
mbDNA™: Single-Stranded Circular DNA
mbDNA™ is a synthetic single-stranded DNA template with a stem-loop structure and nuclease recognition site, enabling nuclease-guided nuclear delivery after cleavage. It achieves 75% knock-in/knock-out efficiency, 2-fold higher cell viability, and exceptional recovery, especially in primary T cells, outperforming pDNA. Optimised for sequences over 20 kb, mbDNA™ supports HDR, works with any nuclease, and offers unmatched versatility for precise gene editing with GMP coming soon.
As demand grows for non-viral delivery solutions, mbDNA is setting a new standard achieving high knock-in efficiency with minimal cellular toxicity, while avoiding the manufacturing constraints associated with AAV. Its minimal, user-defined sequence enables precise delivery of the desired genetic payload, without the inclusion of extraneous elements. The circular, single-stranded architecture of mbDNA is specifically engineered for enhanced stability and optimal performance in homology-directed repair (HDR) applications.
mbDNA has been adopted in leading cell therapy platforms, achieving up to 75% knock-in efficiency and improved CAR T cell yields. mbDNA functionality as an HDR template has also been demonstrated for other challenging primary cell types including B cells, iPSCs and HSCs. Additionally, mbDNA is being explored as an episomal non-viral gene therapy vector, leveraging its reduced innate immunogenicity to offer the potential for extended therapeutic dosing windows.
Superior Editing Performance
Achieves up to 75% genome repair efficiency in human primary T cells — outperforming AAV and linear ssDNA templates.
Low Toxicity, High Viability
Maintains cell health and promotes faster recovery and expansion, critical for therapeutic applications.
Broad Compatibility
Works with multiple CRISPR systems (e.g., Cas9, Cas12a), enabling diverse gene editing strategies.
Scalable
Produced using enzymatic synthesis at the world’s largest dedicated DNA manufacturing facility, ensuring quality and consistency from research to clinical scale.
RESOURCES
Explore our Latest Research
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