Agilent Technologies is adding laboratory space in Boulder, Colorado, to develop and scale up manufacturing technologies for oligonucleotide therapeutics, with an initial focus on enzymatic ligation.
The laboratory will complement the company’s existing oligonucleotide operations in Colorado and its broader manufacturing capabilities in Canada. Agilent expects initial customer programs to begin at the Boulder site in November 2026, subject to applicable operational and regulatory requirements.
Through its Advanced Therapeutics Division, Agilent provides development services and manufacturing under current good manufacturing practice requirements for oligonucleotide medicines. Its work includes small interfering RNA, or siRNA, and antisense oligonucleotides.
The additional space will give Agilent’s teams a dedicated setting to evaluate customers’ enzymatic ligation processes and address manufacturing requirements, according to Blake Unterreiner, vice president and business unit leader of the division.
Enzymatic ligation uses enzymes to connect shorter oligonucleotide fragments into longer therapeutic molecules. Agilent is evaluating the approach as a complement to solid-phase phosphoramidite synthesis, an established technique used in oligonucleotide development and manufacturing.
The company said the two approaches could give developers greater flexibility in choosing a manufacturing process suited to a programs scale and technical requirements.
The Boulder expansion focuses on laboratory capacity for technology development and scale-up. Its initial work will center on evaluating enzymatic ligation rather than replacing the established synthesis method.
Agilent said it continues to assess manufacturing technologies that could support customers as oligonucleotide programs move from development toward commercialization. The new laboratory is intended to support that work alongside the company’s existing operations in Colorado and Canada.