Look over here. Let's get started. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Puneet Souda. I cover life science tools and diagnostics here at Leerink, and it's my pleasure to be hosting from Team Twist, COO, Patrick Finn.
Good to be here.
Good, great to have you. So maybe, Patrick, I mean, to set the stage, I mean, you guys have been putting up strong growth numbers, and what is really a tougher backdrop across the sector in life science tools than NGS? It appears, I mean, the only explanation is you're taking share. Partly, you know, maybe it's expressed genes and SynBio, but NGS was really strong. You know, when I look at the characteristics of this market, I mean, there is pricing, there is turnaround time, there's quality. Maybe tell us what metrics, where you're winning the most, and what's the differentiating factor here?
Okay. Great, great question. A broad question, too. We put up a good quarter. It was good print. Revenue was strong, order book was very strong, and a little bit seasonality to that. And I think we managed about 10 points of margin versus prior years. There was a lot to like there. A lot of the growth is coming from a lot of the hard work we've done many, many years ago. For example, in sequencing or NGS, we entered that market about, It was 2018.
We did a lot of hard work with our customers to get them onto the platform and supporting target image space, obviously. And they've, they've just grown, and we've grown with them. So it's, it's research work, it's design, build, test cycle, iteration of your assay, verification of your assay, validation of your assay, and then ultimately commercialization of your assay. And so what happens along each step of that continuum is it just burn more Twist assays.
As they've scaled, we've scaled very, very nicely with them. But the reason the product's done well is, quite frankly, it all comes back to our technology. Writing on a silicon chip allows us to make DNA at scale no one else can manage. 16 million oligonucleotides per day is a lot. And so if you wanna do your proof of concept experiment, it's very cost-effective to make that happen. If you want the panel to be small, mid-sized, or large, the platform scales on that axis. And equally, if you wanna do your test reactions on a few dozen reactions all the way up, do you want to buy a keg of reagent.
Mm-hmm.
Then we'll scale quite nicely along that way, so, or on all axes. So it's been really successful in taking the market by storm. So, you know, there's been some nice pockets of growth for us, but at the same time, you know, that, that design, build, test cycle and the, the speed with which we can serve the customers is, is really taking the market by storm. And then it's cost effective. So if you're in what looks like a tougher market, then the Twist value proposition resonates even more strongly. More shots on goal, for example, in the SynBio space or more cost-effective discovery, again, design, build, test.
Mm-hmm.
Is absolutely a very favorable story. So I think that's part of our success.
Mm-hmm.
Outside of that, good commercial execution, the team's incredibly focused on serving our customers. Each and every twister that has contact with the customer cares about what's happening.
Mm-hmm.
We make sure we provide very strong support in the early days of getting onto the platform, and then it really is just operational excellence from there to keep, to keep 'em happy.
Got it. I want to touch on NGS next. Obviously, a strong growth there, I think 40% in 2Q. You know, others have noted decline. Obviously, you know, in the share gain theme, can you talk a little bit about what are the pockets? Are you going into the sort of the pocket, the specific pockets of growth or applications, or is it the new account creations, when they're happening, you're able to get to those accounts sooner? Sort of what's the dynamic or what... Yeah.
Worst possible answer coming.
Okay.
Yes, there's a couple of things that are happening.
Mm-hmm.
Obviously, liquid biopsy's been good. Any assay that is sequence-intensive-
Mm-hmm
and requires enrichment should be on the Twist platform. What we enable and support is cost-effective sequencing.
Mm-hmm.
We don't play on price in the target enrichment part; we save cost on sequencing. So for sequence-intensive applications like liquid biopsy, we're a perfect fit, and we've done well in supporting and sustaining and driving into that market. So here comes the yes part of the answer, but there's other areas that we're just starting to radiate out into. Obviously, the MRD opportunity is real and starting to get some traction. We've got plenty of room to grow there. Rare disease, we've done quite well, and some companies that have come onto the Twist platform and have committed in a big way have been incredibly successful. I believe... Just a quick shout-out to the team at GeneDx. I mean, just a prodigious turnaround in their share price, business performance, and touching distance from profitability is outstanding.
That's all Twist, all the time, and so we're delighted to serve them. Maybe others that stayed away from the Twist platform have had a harder time in terms of their own viability. So there, there's been nice growth there. Then up front of the sequencer, there's been areas where we've been able to reach out, where we're not just a DNA synthesis.
Mm-hmm
company who's making target enrichment pools. We provide workflow solutions to our customer. So there's all sorts of different menu and different applications that the customer is working on up front of the sequencer. We're actually very, very well equipped to serve all of those applications. So our first foray into RNA-seq applications has been. It's early, but starting to roll. And the microarray, there's opportunity to move customers from an array over into the sequencing space. We're seeing opportunity there where our product fits well. Methylation as a marker is a really good spot for us.
Mm-hmm.
And even whole genome sequencing, we have we just launched a very interesting new cell-free library construction kit, as a highly tuned up ligase in the formulation. It's a Twist-derived ligase. It's there for efficiency and making sure that no molecule gets left behind. So independent of what the customer is doing up front of the sequencer, we'll have a very nice solution that should be best in class for performance. So the growth's coming from all of those axes. That's, you know, we're going to continue to double down on that workflow space.
You know, within this context of, you know, in terms of pricing versus, you know, turnaround time.
Mm-hmm.
You talked about commercial quality as well. You know, sort of maybe can you provide some insights into how customers, different customers are sort of, sort of stacking this, these things?
Yeah. So maybe talk about Express Genes, for example.
Yeah.
I mean, so obviously, we just launched Express Genes back in November of last year, and then fully in January of this year, where we're turning around genes in 5-7 business days, which is remarkable, though there's none of the competition can do that at the scale that we are at, which is, it's really the true use of the technology. So first things first, we launched the product just recently, and it's performing exactly as it says on the label. Does exactly what it said it's gonna do, which is incredibly important to win and then retain customers. What we've seen with being able to move quickly or with fast turnaround time is that all of the segments that we serve are actually will pay a premium for time.
Mm.
Essentially. So that's good to see. It's a slight surprise for how we thought about the product when we drew it up on the board, but academic, healthcare, industrial segments have found that favorable. Now, there's some we haven't taken away the option for a slightly slower turnaround time, lower price point.
Mm.
There's still a strong customer segment that's going to appreciate the scale and have planned experiment, and that product will still be quite acceptable for what they're trying to do. Again, no one else can do it.
Mm.
So we think the two customer segments will coexist quite nicely. But across the board, there's definitely been interest in Express Gene.
Okay. In this last quarter, you know, Emily talked about some of the blanket POs-
Yes
... that drove an uptick. Can you help us understand sort of what, how those, you know - what was those POs versus last year? What was, you know, sort of inherent, sort of organic blanket PO growth, so to speak?
Sure.
You know, help us also understand, but, you know, what's your sort of fill rate on these POs? You know, well, because obviously, blanket POs are produced frequently by both biopharma and academic customers for a number of products, but that doesn't mean necessarily they get completely filled.
Sure. It's a very nice leading indicator-
Mm
... that the customer is going to be spending more, more money with us over time, and quite frankly, if the number was down, you'd be asking me a different question.
Mm-hmm.
We have a very high conversion rate of the blanket purchase order into revenue. What it's showing us is. because a very, very positive sign. It's a little bit cyclical for some segments. You know, pharma, for example, if they've released funding, the scientist is maybe going to say, "I'm going to make this commitment to you over the following 3 to 4 quarters.
Mm-hmm.
To see elevation in blanket purchase order is good. From a sales mechanic standpoint, it's an excellent tool, and we know how that order is burning down.
Mm-hmm.
If it's burning down quickly, we're there to help the customer drive to a good scientific outcome. If it's burning down slowly, there's some words of encouragement for the sales team member to get in there and help the customer, make sure we're serving them properly.
Mm-hmm.
We have eyes on making sure conversion is high. You're right, it's a relatively light form of paper, but from a sales management standpoint, it's wonderful. Again, I think what it shows is confidence in the Twist platform, Twist product. Maybe there's been some mixed supply, or maybe the customer's had a mixed supply chain in the past. I think the pendulum may just swing a little bit towards Twist as the product scales becomes robust. Again, just to repeat it, so sorry for this.
Mm
But the product's doing exactly what it says on the label, which is that that's very good for business.
You know, staying on sort of the Express Gene side, you know, I think you said 15% of Express Genes was about 15% of clonal genes on the call.
That's right.
You know, based on your sort of current capacity, where do you think... I guess, what's baked into the guide for Express Genes? Where could this be this year and maybe sort of longer term?
Yeah. I don't think we've given guidance on how we're looking at that. We have our internal plans and how we see it.
Mm-hmm.
You know, hypothetically, all genes could be expressed when we have the capacity to sustain that size of business. In all likelihood, it's very unusual for a market to follow 100% one product.
Mm-hmm.
And so I think we'll see continued growth in this, for that product line over time. Just that we'll see continued growth for Twist in that business or that market segment. But right now, I couldn't give any form of guidance on how that could end up. We just know it's being well-received, and now our goal is to go from... Well, really, it's new customer acquisition. We've not historically been known for speed.
Mm-hmm.
So as we now go out and do essentially new customer acquisition, get them onto the platform, you'll see that nice slow burn and slow grind of incremental growth as new customers come onto the platform. They like what they get because it does what it says on the label, and we'll try and drive them to that fourth or fifth purchase order, where they become a very sticky customer.
If I think about, you know, Express Genes as a product in the marketplace, where are you seeing the most traction? Obviously, price is a consideration, but also, you know, turnaround time, I mean, this is.
Yeah
That's the yin and yang of it, sort of-
Yes
And so to speak. But, which customer? I mean, you look at the academic customers versus, I mean, which are fewer for you, versus the biopharma customers, versus liquid biopsy and NGS customers, diagnostic customers. Where are you seeing the most traction?
Right. So the SynBio side-
Yeah.
The healthcare side-
Yeah, sorry. Yeah, SynBio.
My yeah.
Yes.
Just to have clarification, yeah, it—I mean, all the segments like the product, but obviously, if, you know—the mid-size biotech biopharma are going to enjoy that, that turnaround time. Our NGS product line turnaround time is blazing as it stands right now. There, there's no one quicker than us at scale, so, that turnaround time is baked in. But across the segments on the gene side—
Yeah.
We're seeing good uptake.
Got it. Okay. And can you just update us sort of how long it's taking currently for the NGS side of the business? I should have clarified that early on.
Mm-hmm.
You know, SynBio, Express Genes is all only on SynBio side. But, how long does it take to ship the NGS orders? What's the desired turnaround time from a customer point of view versus what you have today?
Yeah, unfortunately, another shade of gray answer. It depends upon a couple of factors.
Yeah.
One is the size of the panel, so the number of probes that goes into the panel. The more probes, the longer it takes. And then the second component of that is how many reactions, what's the volume of reagent that we're going to ship? So it could be from weeks all the way up to, you know, tens of days, depending upon the scale of the order, quite frankly, but it's quick. What we typically see in a competitive setting is, you know, the customer, customers are very smart. They're very good at what they do. They typically want to do 2 or 3 iterations on design to get to the final assay that they're trying to develop.
What we see when we benchmark versus some of the old school methodologies is that we can typically be at the third design by the time they're still waiting for their first design from the competition.
Mm-hmm.
That speed and design build test, the economics of 3 or 4 turns on a design to get exactly the assay you're looking for-
Mm-hmm.
That's, that's very, very powerful. And so when you look at that overall sales cycle, as opposed to just a turnaround time of one order, that's pretty quick to get to the customer or get the customer to the success point in either their, you know, the clinical assay development or their publication.
Got it. Okay. When you look at the overall market and the competition that's out there, what's the reason why you're not still not seeing a competitive response to what Twist is doing in the marketplace?
Oh, we do see competitive response.
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
We just don't see sustainable competitive response.
Mm-hmm.
Our advantage is the silicon chip.
Mm-hmm.
It's incredible scale. Like, I think we're... Was it 0.2% reagent consumption per gene getting created? So it's incredible scale. 16 million, or up to 16 million oligonucleotides per day. That's fast scale. Per day. That's not annual consumption, right? That's a daily turnaround time. That is really quite compelling scale. Now, with the economics of how we write DNA-
Mm-hmm.
It's very hard to take the old school 96-well plate or column synthesis methods and compete with us. Just the cost of reagent alone is tricky. Now, when you partner that and you go into the applied space, sequencing, all the sequencing providers, of which we can serve them all-
Mm-hmm.
They're doing a fantastic job, but sequencing is still quite expensive.
Mm-hmm.
And so I think that we allow most effective and efficient use of that sequencing, data, that sequencing run is a value proposition that's quite hard for the customer, or excuse me, the competition to take on. And I think the other part is, we've industrialized customization. Sounds a little awkward. The customers do want to build their own assay, right? "I don't want version 6 or 7, take it or leave it. I want my assay. That's my design, with my content, that I can refresh in a cost-effective manner.
Mm-hmm.
So if you couple that from a technology standpoint with very high IQ customer service support, field-based application scientists out there to support and sustain the customer, it's quite a formidable competitive... Or we create quite a formidable... value proposition out in the market.
Mm-hmm.
And so then, to me, that's about execution. And, I know you've known Emily for a while, and we're both quite passionate about day-by-day execution, and so we expect that of the team. I think she has a lovely phrase around commercial violence that we like to use, that really is this sort of over-serving and making sure we're just ruthlessly committed to our customers being successful.
Mm.
That passion that she sets with the tone at the top radiates all the way out into the field and to, you know, if you call into Twist for support, there's someone there to take care of you and really truly cares about your experiment. It's a very, very strong customer experience.
Is there any reason, just staying on the competitive point?
Mm-hmm.
Is there any reason why Express Genes model can't be replicated by competitors?
So right now, the competitors we have, they're very strong companies. The highest respect for them. They are currently fast, so you can buy a gene in, you know, 7-10 days from the competition. It doesn't scale. So if you go back to the basics here of Twist value propositions, more shots on goal, right? More DNA for your money. If you go to the competition and you order one gene, it's gonna be quite fast. If you order 10 genes, they'll continue to be quite fast. If you want to start getting down to some real discovery and getting to the 100 or the hundreds of genes, then what you start to see is their scale and capacity, because it's underpinned by old school technology, it doesn't scale so well, so you'll see biphasic and triphasic delivery.
So by the time you're done, end-to-end, to receive your DNA, it's probably in the dozens of days. Now, with Twist, if you go with an Express Gene as an example, one gene is gonna be 5-7 days.
Mm-hmm.
10,000 genes is gonna be 5-7 days. So if you think about it, more shots on goal delivered quickly, that's got to lead to better outcome for the customer, and to me, the technology landscape's not gonna. It's gonna have a hard time competing with that.
Yeah, that makes sense. Okay. I just wanted to touch briefly on, you know, new product launch and what are some areas of focus for you guys when you look at the sort of NGS and the SynBio side?
Yes, in the SynBio side, the fundamental unit of speed is important to us. So 5-7-day gene is excellent. That's gonna expand the serviceable market. We can compete more effectively with the entrenched suppliers today. So they're on lookout. We're coming to get them.... Then the second part would be, we've still got this maker to buyer conversion to drive.
Mm-hmm.
So that, that will continue. Downstream of the chip, after DNA synthesis, is because we're quick, we can now compete in other areas much more effectively. So if you're looking for DNA prepped your way, we're quicker, more cost-effective. If you're looking to go even further downstream for the antibody guys, making the IgG right for the customer.
Mm.
That's the other thing we bring real scale to. So big serviceable market opportunity that we can expand into, and the second part is product line extension, that's gonna allow us to go downstream of the DNA, or the synthetic DNA molecule. So we like that opportunity a lot. With the Factory of the Future, we now have the acreage to make that happen. So that's good. On the sequencing side of the business, we're really liking what we're seeing in the market trends. So obviously, liquid biopsy, the clinical space, MRD's been good for us. And as you know, we'll start to see obviously growth in some of the newer markets. I think we need to think about Twist a little bit differently.
If there's a sample to be sequenced, then we'd like to have a Twist workflow supporting the customer in getting from the sample, so whatever you extract your nucleic acid from, whether it's DNA, RNA, you're looking for a methylation marker, whatever it is you're looking for, there's a workflow that converts that nucleic acid into something that can go onto a sequencer. Now, that can be target enrichment that can be whole genome sequencing, that can be RNA. You're looking to characterize methylation markers. There's a whole stack of different applications. And so as we're starting to think about new product development, really going up front of the sequence and expanding out the menu and the workflows that we have, is gonna allow us to compete for every sample that's gonna be characterized.
Interesting.
You may see there's some competition in the sequencing space, which is great.
Mm.
You've seen some pricing pressure for the sequencing itself.
Mm.
And I think what Illumina's just proven out so beautifully over the decades is that if price comes down, people sequence more stuff. So the economic shifts towards sample preparation or, you know, library construction, and that's an area that we see we can really drive into. We've got a commercial channel that talks that language. We've got technology that allows us to create interesting products that drive good workflows.
Mm.
Then we've got customer service and a user experience that's very, very favorable.
Mm.
So we see opportunities to grow there, too.
How easy is it to go into a NGS account that already is doing library preparation with another vendor and try to switch that, either an NGS test or tissue, or liquid, or heme assay, you know, to go into that account and switch that over, versus going into a new account and convincing them?
Yeah, it's interesting. So the new account is good. We encourage the bake-off our product-
Mm.
Benchmarks very well. It's a fantastic community. I've served the sequencing community since much longer than I would care to admit, and they're quite a cynical bunch.
Mm.
So you can articulate your value. You know, we're gonna save you sequencing costs, we're gonna allow you to, to run more samples, we're gonna help you drive the cost out of the laboratory. That, that's all good, solid selling value proposition. But ultimately, the customer's gonna want to try the product-
Yeah
... and prove it out for themselves. And so that, that's... You know, ultimately, everything gets gated by that. Now, you've got a validated assay, you know, maybe you've got some regulated oversight over an assay, that, that's a tougher one to displace. For the first time in my career, we're actually starting to see some opportunities, where we can see what's a validated assay, and we actually have got a chance to knock out the incumbent.
Mm.
Again, same thing, like if your test is obsoleting a little bit because the cost of sequencing is a bit high, perhaps, or maybe you want to refresh content-
Mm-hmm
... then, that's actually, we're starting to see one or two opportunities pop up there, too. But it's a heavier lift-
Mm.
But for the first time, we're actually starting to see them.
Interesting. Okay. Can you talk a little bit about the regulatory? I mean, you recently launched an IVDR kit in Europe, you know. When you think about the US and what's going to happen here with the FDA LDT.
Mm.
How are you thinking about. Should we think about a product that is already sort of, you know, FDA LDT, sort of approved and ready to go into products that are going... You know, how are you thinking about this whole strategy over the next 4? There's a time lag here.
Right
When FDA is gonna implement this.
Yes, it's a really good question. Maybe I'll break it down into two components. We launched an IVDR product in Europe.
Mm
Earlier this year. What we saw was our European customers, and, you know, we're worldwide in selling. Some of our European customers that were coming to a decision point around what panels to build, you know, and you're getting an overhang from this potentiality of the IVDR regulation being rolled out back in May or whatever. So we moved early to get the grade of quality right, to try and simplify decision-making for the customer in Europe, first and foremost. But secondly, that infrastructure... By the way, today, [We are ISO 13485 , which is fit for purpose for the customers we serve today. But just elevating our level of quality is an early indicator that, you know, as the regulatory environment changes here and worldwide, we're here to support and sustain the community.
Mm.
Then the data economics on our platform works from a quality control standpoint. We actually do sequencing QC of the pools and the panels that we make, so the customer can be confident that if they ordered the probe, the probe's in the mix.
Mm.
That's not so much the case for the old school methodologies, if you're having to manually pipe out a bunch of different oligos together. So from a QC standpoint, we're in a great place. Now, from a quality system standpoint, we're constantly trying to elevate our game to make sure that those customers are well enabled to,
Mm
... get started and grow with us.
I see. Okay. I mean, when you look at the gross margin today, I think you laid out the timing. Just given time, let me get into the, sort of, the gross margin questions. You have 50%+ gross margin by, you know, Q4. I think you had 41% in the Q2. You've laid out 50%+ gross margin by Q4 of 2025. And how much of this trajectory would you say will be driven by volume? ... versus, you know, expressed gene mix or other operational ratios?
Great, great question. I came from the commercial side of the business.
Mm-hmm.
By my math and by Adam's math, I think that the top line is a very, very good lever on margin-
Mm-hmm.
And we'll continue to drive growth. Look, we're fortunate. We serve an incredible customer base that's high growth markets.
Mm-hmm.
Great driving forces in the market, and we'll grow with the customer. So I think the top-line thing is obviously very, very important.
Mm-hmm.
We've made some investments into supply chain and into operational leadership, and it's kind of a, it's not necessarily, maybe it's dramatic to say a change in culture, but it's a change in our thinking. Twist went fast when we started. We had the mentality of, first of all, of a start-up company, because we were a start-up company, and that sort of early stage commercial unit, it really was truly just get the platform, process, and method stable. So pretty much every method that we have in the factory today is gold-plated. As it was go fast, you know, best in class reagent, don't worry about the cost. Let's get this thing up and running properly and really truly deliver quality.
But now that we're starting to show such high double-digit growth, and we're starting to stare at how do we actually make product? It's very interesting. So there's opportunities through just incremental application of 5 S lean methodologies-
Mm-hmm.
-to squeeze costs in everything that we're doing. If you're a supplier to Twist, then we have high growth in an industry with, you know, many, many customers across a, a broad, broad range of businesses. It's very important to stay in the Twist supply system. The discussions that we're having with our suppliers now are very, very different to what we've had historically. So if you wanna stay with us and enjoy the growth and enjoy that wave, then, you know, we have some expectations that are, are gonna help both of us along the way. So I think from a selling standpoint, I'm liking what I'm seeing in the market, but then with the investments we're making in ops and this, this attention and focus-
Mm.
and drive on doing things more cost effectively, I think you'll see us ground and pound our way to improve margin.
Okay.
Adam's an impatient man. I've been working with him for a few months now.
Mm-hmm.
On gross margin, I can hear him. You know, we like it when it starts with a five, and he's not gonna settle with that, so
Okay, fair. Maybe just, in the few minutes we have here-
Sure.
Let me ask, why is, you know, biopharma... Help me understand, why is that, how do you think about that business? Why is that... I would say NGS is core and Synbio is core to you as, someone who makes oligos, but why is that, why is biopharma a core business to you?
Yeah, it's a great segment for us. Antibody discovery is an interesting service and product offering-
Mm-hmm.
that actually sits very well with, with all of our synthetic biology products, quite frankly. Healthcare is a big growth segment for us.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
And so when we go in and talk to customers in the drug discovery space, we'll do anything from we'll make you a gene, we'll make you an oligo pool, a discovery library, all the way through to give us a target, and then we're gonna point the DNA synthesis platform to make, you know, we've got our library of libraries or to actually go in, do the panning, discover interesting antibodies, and then potentially optimize for the customer to get them candidates so they can take up against their target.
Mm-hmm.
The market segment is good for us.
Mm-hmm.
And it, it's an extension of the product line, in essence. It's essentially, you know, our DNA library product line on steroids, if I could try and articulate it that way. So for us, it's a great touchpoint into the customer base. It leads to other business. It's a very custom craft sales. It's a tougher one to scale. It's not a fixed SKU, but what it allows us to do is sell a much broader spectrum of our capability. High contact, very, very high engagement from the sales team. We've just gone through a restructure and rebuild of the commercial unit, and they're learning to work in a Twist operating system, so the new leadership there really tuning how that team functions. And we're starting to see some green shoots of growth in the business.
I'm starting to get a little bit happier with the execution, commercial operation that's happening there. I think there's plenty of market space for us to grow into independent of funding, and then you've got the synergy-
Mm
-of the other products we can sell with that capability. So, you know, I like the product offering.
Mm-hmm.
We've just got to continue to execute well, and, you know, we've got plenty of market share to grow into.
Yeah. Biopharma is indeed a, you know, a long-term game,
For sure.
Yeah. Antibody discovery, that is, you know, just, just in the few last two minutes here, I want to touch on sort of data storage. Obviously, you know, cash burn for you, it's something that is down the road. When you are growing, you know, well in, in, in SynBio, I mean, NGS and SynBio and the core business, maybe tell us the sort of the value proposition of staying with data storage still.
Yeah, so look, I'm a DNA chemist from many, many years ago.
Mm.
What a brilliant application of synthetic DNA. I think the need is real. There's definitely a capacity challenge coming in the not-too-distant future for long-term data storage, where we're living proof that nucleic acid is a very good medium for storing data. I think that-
Mm.
That's a fair assumption, and we've actually had some sort of early-stage sales over the last couple of years into that application. It's all about writing density. You'll see us get towards a terabyte chip, somewhere into that sort of proof of concept, early access towards the end of next calendar year.
Mm-hmm.
I think it's like $7 million, but can't remember the exact number in the last quarter. I'll paraphrase, Emily, if you don't mind: There's no sacred cows in Twist in terms of businesses, and we'll do the right thing for the business to make sure we can maximize the return on that investment. Interesting opportunity and a great application for the DNA chemist.
Okay. All right, we're close to the end.
We are.
Thank you for the time, and this was great.
Thank you. That's the fastest 30 minutes ever. Thank you.