QuintaraBio
The One-stop-shop for All Things DNA Sequencing

Since its humble beginning in Albany with just two sequencing machines and two employees, QuintaraBio has become a one-stop-shop for all things gene sequencing. The company’s molecular biology expertise entails NGS, Sanger sequencing, cloning services, tailored gene synthesis, oligo synthesis, and DNA prep services, to name a few. “We started as a gene sequencing center, and now we have several additional services that we deliver in the shortest turnaround time,” says Dr. Sue Zhao, General Manager, QuintaraBio.

The life sciences vertical has constantly been challenged in terms of meeting research deadlines. Relying on two or more vendors to meet sequencing needs can turn out to be an arduous affair for researchers and companies in this space, given the need to manage redundant paperwork and other formalities with every vendor. Moreover, the community continues to face pandemic-induced hurdles around sample shipments between researchers and gene sequencing service providers. QuintaraBio turns the tables with its multi pronged capabilities and customer-centric service delivery.
For clients with proprietary sequencing needs, QuintaraBio is a god-send, especially from a legal negotiations standpoint. For high throughput sequencing, the company saves clients the hassle of sending out back holding primers for gene expression to many secondary vendors. It even operates a courier service in Boston to bring samples to its facility and has contracts with several suppliers ensuring their timely availability. “We are well resourced and carry out all processes within the US. We don’t do overseas shipments which relieve clients from intellectual property complications,” says Dr. Richard Shan, Founder, QuintaraBio.

Positioning itself among the league of companies providing gene sequencing, the company has purpose built platforms for various sequencing needs.

Quintara’s NGS expertise includes HLA typing, amplicon, hybridoma, antibody and 16S sequencing. “We are the only company to provide 384 format sequencing in this space” says Dr. Feng Qian, PhD, Director of NGS, QuintaraBio. The company expects NGS to garner significant attention once its costs come down. After all, it encompasses numerous advantages such as sequencing hundreds or thousands of genes simultaneously and even detect low-frequency variants.

QuintaraBio houses immense capabilities to produce and analyze complicated constructs. Mandating customer centricity and transparency in all partnerships, QuintaraBio can work with whatever the client gives them and carry out processes including gene synthesis, colonial work, gene translation, and editing.Take, for instance, a client requiring an insilico(computer-generated) sequence synthesized in particular vectors. QuintaraBio can synthesize the gene from the sequence, clone it and verify for target vectors, prep it in sufficient quantity for quality control (QC) and finally send those for customer use.

In continuous cloning projects, Quintara maintains an online sheet through which clients can monitor the progress of their constructs—across gene synthesis, cloning, and sequencing—in real-time. Later, clients can download this spreadsheet then validate it from a QC standpoint. Such an extensive process facilitates clients to run a lean operation without needing any separate cloning department. “Be it for troubleshooting or supplementing the lack of experienced personnel, we help clients achieve the best possible outcomes,” says Dr. Markus Bachschmid, COO, QuintaraBio.

With great emphasis on pre- and post-sequencing quality control, the firm caters to some of the biggest names in the life science landscape. Shan reminisces of a particular client who sent them the cDNA with a ‘not so good’ frequency from a poorly optimized RT reaction. To this end, QuintaraBio went ahead to help the client optimize their sequencing protocol and use a newer DNA sequencing pipeline.

Having scripted such client success stories, the company always looks forward to aligning with new technologies or techniques in biosciences. The company has, in this regard, optimized its oligo synthesis capabilities and can now build gene blocks from synthesized oligos and produce large libraries—a pool of about 4000 to 6000 oligos— from a single tiny tube.

For the future, Quintara has a third-generation NGS in the hopper for single-cell sequencing. “New techniques and biology will prevail in this space, and we will try it, test it and always improve our process. Our clients always get that product they cannot buy elsewhere.” concludes Richard.