DNA Software

DNA Software develops PCR assay design and analysis software for life sciences organizations working in areas such as infectious disease diagnostics, cancer research, and molecular biology. Founded by Dr. John SantaLucia based on research conducted at Wayne State University, the company has operated for over 20 years, translating predictive DNA thermodynamic models into software algorithms intended to replace or reduce traditional trial-and-error experimentation. DNA Software serves hundreds of organizations, offering both software products and consulting and assay design services delivered by its in-house scientific team.

The company's solutions span desktop and cloud-based applications and address challenges including multiplex primer design, DNA copy number detection from PCR curves, modified nucleotide predictions, and rate kinetics prediction from sequence. DNA Software also operates PCRassays.com, a separate storefront providing PCR kits.

Core Software Products

• PanelPlex™ — provides fully automated design of single and multiplexed PCR assay panels for user-selected targets, optimized to minimize cross-assay interactions and reduce false positives from background detection. The platform is designed to generate large multiplexed assays in hours rather than months, and includes customer training and support programs.
• Consensus™ — provides fully automated design of singleplex PCR assays optimized to differentiate and detect only desired sequences within a split target of high homology, such as infectious disease sub-populations. The software is reported to regularly save organizations six or more months in assay development, reducing time to market for diagnostics.
• Visual OMP™ — simulates and optimizes assay designs for difficult targets. Includes ThermoSleuth™, a feature designed to eliminate false positives from unwanted amplicons. Users have reported a greater than 95% success rate when using Visual OMP™ to design assays for GC-rich promoter sequences, with one user reporting over 10,000 assays designed using the platform. The underlying science has been cited more than 5,000 times according to ISI Web of Science.
• qPCR CopyCount™ — a method for detecting DNA copy number from PCR curves, acknowledged in the journal Methods as outperforming other curve-fitting approaches.

Consulting and Assay Design Services

• DNA Software offers consulting services delivered by the same team that developed the software, with decades of experience in assay design.
• Services are positioned for organizations facing particularly difficult scientific problems where software alone may not be sufficient.
• The consulting team has helped customers accelerate discovery timelines from months to minutes and has provided solutions described as otherwise impossible without specialist expertise.

Accolades and Recognition

• Amazon AWS Diagnostic Development Initiative Award: Phase II (2022) and Phase I (2020)
• AOAC Award for Technical and Scientific Excellence related to the COVID-19 Emergency Response Validation Program Advisory Group (2021, awarded to Dr. SantaLucia)
• Contributing member of the collaboration team that published a paper on Hachimoji base pairs in Science (2019), covered by outlets including the New York Times, CNN, Nature, and NASA
• Frost & Sullivan Award recipient (2019)
• Nine NIH technology-investment grants totaling $8 million received
• Recognized as one of Michigan's "50 Companies to Watch"
• Selected as one of 54 recipients of Pure Michigan's Economic Gardening Pilot Program
• Wayne State University Distinguished Entrepreneur Award presented to Dr. SantaLucia, president and CEO
• Dr. SantaLucia's foundational published research has been cited over 8,000 times
• DNA Software has designed primer design multiplexes numbering 500 or more

DNA Software is headquartered in Michigan and continues to develop additional solutions. The company positions its platform as a means of reducing assay development timelines and improving the accuracy of PCR-based analysis for diagnostics and research organizations.