TeselaGen has secured an exclusive license in all fields of use for the “j5” gene assembly software from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory . TeselaGen prevailed with the strongest proposal to promote and leverage the j5 technology for their rapid prototyping system for synthetic biology. Based on the idea that a forward engineering approach needs to incorporate the utility of both biology and engineering in the quest for easier and faster ways to build biomolecules, TeselaGen is expecting the j5 technology to play an important role in its software as a service offering. The j5 software package, which has attracted users from more than 250 institutions worldwide since it was made available last year, emerged from the Joint BioEnergy Institute, a Department of Energy research center established in 2007 to pursue breakthroughs in the production of cellulosic biofuels. By building on j5 and adding modules for commercial users, TeselaGen Biotechnology, says it will significantly reduce the time and cost involved with DNA synthesis and cloning, a multibillion-dollar market.