Camena Bioscience is a biotechnology research company based in Cambridge, UK. Their mission is to enable synthetic biologists by using their technology to unlock access to genes with unparalleled accuracy. They produce genes for a range of biotechnology customers, including those in the pharmaceutical, agriculture, and diagnostics sectors. Their technology offers access to long and complex gene sequences, which are normally difficult to produce. They are positioned to enable researchers and the synthetic biology revolution.

Camena Bioscience

Our mission is to enable synthetic biologists, by using our technology to unlock access to genes with unparalleled accuracy. 

We produce genes for a range of biotechnology customers including those in the pharmaceutical, agriculture and diagnostics sectors. Our technology offers access to long and complex gene sequences, which are normally difficult to produce. We are based in Cambridge UK, but we serve companies across the world. 

Camena's technology is positioned to enable researchers and the synthetic biology revolution.

Twitter: @camenabio

We're #hiring a new Research Associate in Cambridge, England. Apply today or share this post with your network.

We're #hiring a new Senior Scientist - Molecular Biology (Fixed Term Contract) in Cambridge, England. Apply today or share this post with your network.

🌞 Morning! We're kicking off the week with an introduction to Ruby Chronopoulou, who recently joined us as a Principal Scientist. 

Ruby is an experienced biotechnologist with a PhD in Immunology. 

Her expertise lies in fermentation, specifically upstream process development, which is a vital part of our greenSynth lab.

👏 Welcome to the team Ruby.

🌟Here is one of our newest team members, Charlotte Brown! 🌟

Charlotte joins us as an office manager, bringing a wealth of experience to the team.

Having worked in rapidly growing Cambridge start-ups before, she brings invaluable skills in enhancing organisational efficiency and managing day-to-day operations.

Morning! This is Claudia, one of our newest team members. 👋

Claudia graduated from the University of East Anglia with an MSc in Computing Science this year, and has joined us as a Software Engineer.

Before her MSc, Claudia studied immunology. During that time she developed an interest in programming and bridging the gap between biology and technology. 

Great to have you on the team Claudia. 🎉

This week marked my 2 year anniversary at Camena Bioscience 🎉 

Some of my proudest achievements during this journey so far include:

➡ Establishing a cutting-edge lab, workflow and standardising that workflow with Nadin Holbrook, PhD

➡ Successfully building my first customer genes using the workflows we implemented

➡ Driving two inspiring summer programs: 10,000 Black Interns and In2scienceUK

➡ Building out an automated applicant tracking system to enhance our recruitment processes

➡ Conducting over 100 interviews which was a vital part of expanding our incredible team from 5 to 15

➡ Collaborating and working internationally 

Looking forward to what the next 2 years hold at Camena Bioscience!

🔬 In July 2023, Cambridge-based Camena Bioscience raised a £7.8million Series A round led by Mercia Ventures.

The company provides synthetic genes to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, and thanks to its pioneering DNA synthesis platform, gSynth, it is the first company to offer this unique and highly accurate enzyme-based DNA synthesis technology.

CEO and Co-founder, Steve Harvey, explains how their technology is being utilised by some very well established pharma.

Watch more ⏬

#VentureCapital #Bioscience #Gene #DNA #Cambridge #Science #SeriesA #Scale

The difference between you successfully making a medicine or not might be a Goldilocks zone of gene expression.


Previously, our understanding of gene function was based on binary tools. Take it away, and see what happens.

But now, much of R&D focuses on fine-tuning gene expression levels. 


Good news: we know a lot about promoter elements (the bits of DNA that control gene expression).

Bad news: many companies struggle to make them. 


One of the reasons for this is that promoters can have a higher % of G and C bases compared to the coding sequence of genes.

1/ Strings of G bases are difficult to produce with traditional DNA synthesis methods (phosphoramidite).

2/ G:C base pairs also have three hydrogen bonds, whereas A:T have two. 

That means that GC-rich areas stick together more tightly than lower GC areas.

And when you're combining those DNA regions, they're challenging to assemble.


This is another problem area of DNA synthesis where Camena Bioscience is enabling customers. We're giving them a little extra chance of making a life-saving medicine.

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#gsynth #dnasynthesis #biotech #synbio
Image made with Biorender

Welcome to the Camena Bioscience team Rachel Clarke. 👏 👏

Rachel has joined Camena as a Scientist and will work in our foundry team. 

Previously, she worked for 11 years in drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics (DMPK). 

Her scientific career began via an apprenticeship, initially studying towards a BTEC Level 3 in Applied Science and, upon its successful completion, a BTEC Level 4 HNC in Biological Science for Industry. 

Rachel progressed from Apprentice Research Technician to DMPK Scientist, responsible for running various semi-automated assays in a high throughput drug discovery laboratory.

We want to introduce you to some of our newest team members. First up 🥁🥁🥁...

Maria Primo 🎉🎉🎉

Maria started her career as a molecular biologist and completed her PhD in Biomedicine from Aarhus University in Denmark.

She then moved to Cambridge to continue her postdoctoral career, developing next-generation sequencing technologies for single-cell immune profiling and antibody discovery campaigns.

Maria has joined us as a Senior Scientist, and will be working in our greenSynth team.

COM:CAMENABIO

Camena Bioscience