Touchlight and New England Biolabs® Unveil EnClose™ Cell-free dbDNA™ Synthesis Kit to Accelerate Next Generation DNA and RNA Therapeutic Development

LONDON, UK, March 18, 2026 / Biotech Newswire / -- Touchlight, in collaboration with New England Biolabs (NEB®), announces the launch of the EnClose™ Cell-free dbDNA™ Synthesis Kit, a new benchtop solution enabling rapid enzymatic production of Touchlight’s proprietary doggybone DNA™ (dbDNA™). This linear, covalently closed, double-stranded DNA format offers researchers a fast, cell-free alternative to traditional plasmid DNA, supporting the growing demand for nucleic acid therapeutics.

Traditional plasmid manufacturing remains a critical bottleneck for advanced therapy developers, often requiring complex bacterial fermentation and long lead times. As Ashley Luck, Associate Director of Applications and Development at NEB, explains:
“Traditional plasmid DNA manufacturing is a significant bottleneck in Advanced Therapies development, often requiring large-scale fermentation, cell banking, and long lead times that can slow the path to the clinic. We’re thrilled to offer a cell-free alternative that allows researchers to bypass these complex bacterial processes. This kit enables the rapid screening and production of high-purity DNA templates right at the benchtop, cutting months off the development timeline for mRNA vaccines and gene therapies.”

The EnClose kit integrates NEB’s enzymatic expertise with Touchlight’s dbDNA platform, providing a streamlined workflow that allows researchers to generate high yields of closed-ended DNA in a single day. Free from bacterial sequences and antibiotic resistance genes, dbDNA offers advantages in regulatory alignment and safety, while supporting applications such as AAV and lentiviral vector production, nonviral gene therapy, mRNA therapeutics, and gene editing systems. Its enzymatic synthesis also enables the creation of constructs that are challenging to produce in bacterial hosts, including long poly(A) tails and viral inverted terminal repeats.

Dr. Tommy Duncan, Chief Business Officer at Touchlight, highlights the importance of expanding access to dbDNA™: “Collaborating with NEB allows us to significantly broaden the accessibility of our technology, putting it directly and easily into the hands of researchers for the first time. By combining our proprietary dbDNA technology with NEB’s expertise in enzymology, we’ve optimized a workflow that allows scientists to screen constructs and prototype high-throughput designs rapidly, before moving on to larger-scale manufacturing.”

This new kit complements ongoing efforts by both companies to support the rapid progression of RNA and DNA based medicines from research through clinical translation. More information on the EnClose™ Cell-free dbDNA™ Synthesis Kit can be found at www.neb.com/E9301